There never has been much of a question that are a cerebral band -- 's songs dance around meaning and deliberately turns meaning inside out -- but they always hit the gut instead of the head due to their propulsive melodies and sweetly muscular guitars. Such was the case up through 2005's , anyway, but on their fourth album, 2007's , they turn inward, tempering their hooks and muting their colors, winding up with an album that emphasizes their admirable qualities first, with their endearing ones revealing themselves only after repeated plays. It's true that ' albums have always been growers, records that unveiled their gifts over time, but is their biggest grower yet, a dense collection of carefully constructed and brain-power where even the liveliest song, is a tense, nervous cacophony of ideas and riffs that doesn't grab hold -- it plants a seed that later blooms. Few of the other songs here are as fast or jumbled as that -- it's every bit the early salute claims it is -- as the rest of the album dwells over slower, softer territory, or precisely written tunes where no left turn goes unexplored. At least that's true of 's tunes, and he once again dominates the album, writing nine out of the 12 tracks. has a knack for writing segments that are bright, hooky, and seemingly indelible, possessing the blinding rush of the best , but when he's writing for this band, he assembles these colorful shards of melody in challenging ways, creating intricate mosaics where the melodies never quite lead exactly where they seem they would. Although play these songs with an unassuming directness, 's requires active listening, especially here on , as it's built upon carefully arranged and quietly performed songs. balances these precious tendencies of by indulging in his eccentricities. His songs aren't as detailed in their arrangements, but this only accentuates his oddness, where he can make either the slow, spooky crawl of or the delicate stomp of seem equally off balance. As always, this does make for a good contrast to the essential sweetness of 's melodies (perhaps best heard on the openers, and the gateway drugs for the rest of the album), but it often seems as if knows that he has a gift for these sweet melodies, so he undercuts that gift by having his melodies follow unconventional paths, and by having his lyrical meaning so well hidden that it often seems not worth the bother to analyze. So, this is internal music, best suited for solitary listening, but the odd thing about is that it has the inherent tension and messiness of a band, where harmonies float in and out and the group rides a natural rhythm instead of a click track. And that, more so than the seesaw between 's and 's songs, is the true balance of , because both writers benefit from having a band that plays like a band: while you may not be able to decipher these writers immediately, they sell their eccentricities as something that's quintessentially, endearingly human, and that talent proves invaluable on a record as subtle, yet rewarding, as . ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine