The Planet The

The second album from the Planet The tightens up the electro-prog-pop that the band introduced on its 2003 debut and keeps firmly in place the goofy abandon that set the group apart. Physical Angel played at meshing genres, hopping from moody goth pop to spazzy post-punk, but here on You Absorb My Vision they bleed those elements together with surprising ease. Charles Matze's anxious crooning comes off as both deadly serious and tongue in cheek, like a less self-conscious distillation of David Byrne and Pere Ubu's Dave Thomas, although it's unlikely that either of those brooding scribes would have penned anything like the hair-crimping ode "Free Jewelry." Musically, the Planet The fall somewhere between the angular attack of Erase Errata and the synthesizer riffs of Numbers, yet these disco punks are far more restless than either. Although "Please Don't Kill Myself" survives the typical pop song three-and-a-half-minute length, it feels much longer, packing in multiple parts to create a mini epic. The same is true of much of You Absorb My Vision, one of the few albums that matches its progressive rock dexterity with equally deft pop hooks. ~ Wade Kergan, All Music Guide