Pterodactyl
's third album demonstrates two key things off the bat. First, they're perfectly at home in the world of indie-as-huge-sounding-singalongs with guitar lines that are part shoegaze and part Wall of Sound. Second, they're so at home that it's nearly impossible to separate this from its larger context, after a decade-plus of popular successes such as
the Flaming Lips
in their 21st century guise,
the Arcade Fire
, and many other bands besides. It's not that there's something inherently wrong with songs like "Searchers" and "The Break"; it's just that there's something so done to death in their approach that there's little one can do with most of
Spills Out
except nod and maybe sigh a bit at how paint-by-numbers it feels. As a result, one relishes those moments that are somewhat more of an exception to the rule, such as the slower and dirtier-sounding "Allergy Shots," where the contrast with the softer, calmer vocals provides the album's first truly strong moment. The even slower, doom-tinged trudge of "Thorn" and the increasingly noisy, frenetic melodrama of "Zombies" show that if the bandmembers let themselves go a little more -- and sooner, in the course of an album -- they might have something more to offer with the end results. But a few strong moments don't make a full release succeed. ~ Ned Raggett