It ’s been a full two years since the Estrogen Highs have graced our turntables, but after a brief hiatus the boys are back & with a healthy batch of eighteen songs that comprise their fourth full-length “Hear Me On The Number Station”. The teeth-rattling scree of 2012’s “Irrelevant Future” is (mostly) dialed back to a pensive hum, without sacrificing any of the lyrical bite, and sits comfortably alongside an exploratory pop drive, embracing the dichotomy between noise & quietude with confidence & ease.
Vocalist/guitarist Stefan Christiansen’s laconic delivery is the lynchpin to many of the album’s eighteen tunes, with lyrics that sway between the abstract & the intimately specific. The New Haven, Connecticuit band has always had one foot in the musical waters of New Zealand, & the influence of their Kiwi-pop forefathers, but this time out the band incorporates the more avant textures of the Xpressway discography rather than Flying Nun. The delicate piano mantra “Ungrateful” & pensive guitar strummers like “Sideways Through Trees”, “Forever Designing My Stationary ” & “Poverty of Human Words” are jammed next to lean punk rippers like “The Russian” & “This Harsh Country ” & budget anthems “Hospital Cloud” & “For This Structure”, all of which give “Hear Me On The Number Station” the feel of an amazingly curated mixtape of unknown DIY pop.
Recorded & mixed by the band themselves in varying degrees of fidelity, “Hear Me On The Number Station” was mastered by Australian audio guru Mikey Young, comes housed in a black & white jacket & inner sleeve w/lyrics. The first edition of “Hear Me On The Number Station” is pressed on randomly mixed vinyl & includes a download code.
