Still driven by original members
Daniel Agust Haraldsson
,
Birgir Ã?orarinsson
, and
Stephan Stephensen
, along with relative newcomer
Hoegni Egilsson
GusGus
continue to refine their song-oriented approach on
Mexico
, their third album for
Kompakt
. More direct than 2011's
Arabian Horse
, one of the Cologne label's top sellers of the late 2000s and early 2010s,
plays it straight throughout. All but one selection -- the tugging, gnashing title track, far from a breather amid the album's succession of emotive voices -- is a full-blown song. Just over half the tracks are merely well-produced, enjoyable if not all that stimulating, while others deal knockout blows. Above all others, the ecstatic "Another Life" ("I'm in a daze from your love") is one of the group's best all-time productions, where strings dart around bass drums and hi-hats arranged for a brilliant clamp-and-stomp effect. The immaculate "Airwaves" is an unabashedly festival-ready trance-pop monster that builds momentum in subtle fashion. Taut drums, sparkling synthesizers, and a sweetly spaced-out falsetto chorus make the electro-R&B of "God-Application" as dizzying as anything from
Luomo
's
The Present Lover
. Finale "This Is What You Get When You Mess with Love," the only song that doesn't fall within the five- to six-minute range, is lonesome, subdued shuffletech that would fit on a third volume of
's long-dormant
Schaffelfieber
compilation series. When
joined
, the association seemed odd -- almost charitable on the label's part -- but now it makes total sense. ~ Andy Kellman