A Place to Bury Strangers See Through You

Setting aside their continually dense thickets of noise, A Place to Bury Strangers haven't followed a steady path throughout their two-decade run. If their last LP, 2018's Pinned, felt like an opportunity for the New York City band to stabilize their project after a few significant lineup changes, then See Through You signals a newfound partnership that might be more than just temporary. Oliver Ackermann—the project's mastermind—hasn't sounded as visceral and assured on tracks like Let's See Each Other and Ringing Bells, layering his vocals upfront and embracing some playful sleaze. His loud, pedal craftsmanship is still on point, of course, but there's a joyful ebullience to their performances as opposed to the well-calibrated darkness they'd embraced in past releases. Anyone But You lurches with a fiery punk force, and the loving proclamation of I Don't Know How You Do It clatters with a bounce that is positively life-affirming—both accompanied by Sandra Fedowitz's fleet-footed drumming. If APTBS have fallen off your radar in recent years, then this is the one worth reintroducing yourself to their work.