The sixth studio album (and first outing in nearly five years) from sunny/sordid pop confectioner
Joel Gibb and his merry band of rainbow revelers, picks right up where 2009's transformative
Origin: Orphan left off, moving the Canadian collective even further from the traditional, guitar-led chamber pop cadence of albums like
Smell of Our Own and Mississauga Goddam, and into more club-ready electro-pop territory. One can only churn out so many deliriously catchy dishes of self-described "gay church folk music" before the taste buds begin to wilt, and the electrified (they've removed the pews and installed a dancefloor), modestly populated
AGE serves as an efficient palate cleanser, with highlights arriving via the resplendent opener "Skin & Leather," a decadent mix of
Patrick Wolf,
Ultravox, and "It's a Sin"-era
Pet Shop Boys, the evocative "Doom" (can something be both hook-filled and monastic?), the jangly,
Stone Roses-inspired "Year of the Spawn," and the tart, tuneful, and testy single "Gay Goth Scene." ~ James Christopher Monger