Refrigerator follows up on a trend that earlier releases like
Anchors of Bleed hinted at -- it takes the sprawling and entirely low-key introspection of the group's past work into territory that could acceptably be described as pop. This newfound straightforwardness makes the record their most accessible release to date (tracks like "California" even have the sloppy melodicism of early
Pavement). The core of the songwriting seems to lie in the same idiosyncratic space as the languid drawl of
How You Continue Dreaming, but all of its elements are presented clearly enough to keep things simpler, cleaner, and more widely appealing. Surprisingly, none of this sacrifices the band's most unique tendencies --
Refrigerator is brisker, more direct, and less bogged-down in navel-gazing, but it's still vintage
Refrigerator.