Last year, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better Guider was than its predecessor.  Now Disappears has surprised me again, greatly toning down their signature Neu!-worship in favor of something that sounds like a hell of a lot like GVSB-worship (or perhaps merely a deep fascination with Mark E. Smith).  Fortunately, I thought Girls Against Boys were pretty awesome in their prime and The Fall aren't so bad either.  More importantly, this quizzical shift in direction coincides with a fairly massive leap forward in the band's songwriting, making this the punchiest, hookiest, leanest, and most immediately gratifying album that the band has made yet.
While comparisons to other bands are pretty unavoidable when discussing Pre Language, it isn't nearly as derivative of an album as it seems at first listen.  In fact, only Brian Case's laconic and syllabically enhanced vocals stand out as especially indebted to Smith and GVSB (kind of a shouted mumble in which every last word ends with a drawled -ah or -uh).  The issue is simply that Case's vocals tend to be the focal point.  Still, it is hard to deny the appeal of such cool disaffection, even if Case is not darkly sexual or cantankerously deranged as his predecessors.  He probably should work on concealing his influences a little better, but at least he has pretty unerring taste in choosing them.
Vocals aside, Disappears has become much better and more distinctive at what they do in all other respects.  Part of that increased focus and emphasis on structure is probably due to the addition of Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley as the band's full-time drummer, as previous drummer Graeme Gibson always seemed like one of the band's driving creative forces.  However, the drumming itself is not wildly different–both drummers are clearly in love with motorik beats (Shelley having recently toured as a member of Michael Rother's Hallogallo).  The key difference seems to be that the groove is no longer the primary objective.  Rather than locking into a cool beat and vamping on it until the song is done, Pre Language finds the band stripping away much of the bloat and improvisation in place of tight riffing and coherent songs.  Rhythmic repetition is certainly still a central component of the Disappears' aesthetic, but it has become a tool rather than an end.  Also, these songs are a lot less busy than their predecessors and the added space allows for punchier and more dynamic riffing and some welcome increased emphasis on bass lines.
All of that ultimately means that everything great about Disappears (propulsive beats, cool minimal riffs, a certain restrained bad-assness) is still there: it's just sharper and better presented than I was expecting.  Some fans may be a bit disappointed that there are no lengthy, barreling epics of repetition in the vein of Guider's "Revisiting," but it seems unlikely: there are just too many things to like here (the Fugazi-esque stabbing riff of "Joa," the rumbling tom beat of "Hibernation Sickness," the swagger and hookiness of the title piece, etc.).  I still maintain that Disappears are a band best enjoyed in single-song doses rather than an entire album, but Pre Language boasts a very high proportion of short, catchy, hard-hitting songs.  My sole other caveat is that I wish this band would get a bit wild and unhinged more often: while the guitars explode a bit at the end of "Hibernation Sickness," they stay a bit too polite, processed, and deep in the mix to be truly biting.  Those are pretty minor quibbles though, as this is pretty solid and enjoyable effort from start to finish (and an impressive evolutionary leap too).
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