''Lenses Alien'' is the second album by the indie rock band

Cymbals Eat Guitars Cymbals Eat Guitars were an indie rock band from Staten Island, New York,Barsuk Records Barsuk Records ( ) is an independent record label based in Seattle, Washington which was founded in 1998 by Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, the members of the band This Busy Monster, to release their band's material. Its logo is a draw ...

Barsuk Records Barsuk Records ( ) is an independent record label based in Seattle, Washington which was founded in 1998 by Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, the members of the band This Busy Monster, to release their band's material. Its logo is a draw ...

. Retrieved 4 August 2011. The album was produced by John Agnello and received generally positive reviews.Rachel. T. Cole
Progress Report: Cymbals Eat Guitars

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011.

Background and recording

Cymbals Eat Guitars had gained much buzz following the release of their self-released debut album '' Why There Are Mountains'', touring with

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are an American indie pop band from New York City. The band was formed by Kip Berman (vocals, guitar), Peggy Wang (keyboards, vocals), Alex Naidus (bass), and Kurt Feldman (drums) in 2007. Their current lineup i ...

in 2009 and playing at the 2010

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

.Cymbals Eat Guitars at Lollapalooza 2010
.

. Retrieved 6 August 2011. In addition, the band saw a change in its lineup following the release of their debut album. Dan Baer, the band's original keyboardist, left the band due to an illness, while the band's original bassist, Neil Berenholz, left due to his dislike of touring.Lello, Michael
Crash and Jangle: An Interview with Joseph D'Agostino of Cymbals Eat Guitars

Popmatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

. 7 January 20101. Retrieved 5 August 2011.Breihan, Tom
Cymbals Eat Guitars Get New Bassist

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

. 27 October 2009. Retrieved 6 August 2011. Baer and Berenholz were replaced by Brian Hamilton and Matthew Whipple respectively.May, E.N
Interview: Joseph Ferocious (of Cymbals Eat Guitars)

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...

. 8 September 2009. Retrieved 5 August 2011. In March 2011, the band signed with

to record a follow-up to ''Why There Are Mountains.''Studarus, Laura
Cymbals Eat Guitars Sign to Barsuk New Album This Fall
'' Under the Radar''. 7 March 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011. ''Lenses Alien'' was recorded in Brooklyn and took only 15 days to record. According to an interview with

, the album's sound was influenced by

Spiritualized Spiritualized (stylised as Spiritualized®) are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Jason Pierce (often known as J. Spaceman), formerly of Spacemen 3. After several line up-changes, in 1999, the band centred on Pie ...

, Bedhead and

slowcore Slowcore, also known as sadcore, is a subgenre of indie rock characterised by its subdued tempos, minimalist instrumentation, and sombre vocal performances. Slowcore's influences are diverse, involving varying other genres, including folk rock ...

. In July 2011, the band premiered the first track from the album: "Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name)" as a free

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

download.Breihan, Tom
Cymbals Eat Guitars Share New Track, Tour

. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011. On August 23, 2011, the album was streamed in its entirety on

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

.Palermino, Christopher
FULL ALBUM STREAM: Cymbals Eat Guitars

. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011. The album cover was originally a

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

that the band did as a homage to an artist the band admired. However, the artist was not happy with the cover, so the band changed the cover out of respect for the artist.Studarus, Laura
Cymbals Eat Guitars Change Album Art Announce New Tour Dates
Under the Radar. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.

Musical style

Many critics compared ''Lenses Alien'' to 90's

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

bands such as

Superchunk Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer-guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Laura King. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that hel ...

and

Built to Spill Built to Spill is an American indie rock band that formed in Boise, Idaho, in 1992. Centered on lead vocalist and guitarist Doug Martsch, the only permanent member, Built to Spill has released nine albums since its inception. Martsch originall ...

.Ryan, Kyle
Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lenses Alien

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.LeChevallier, Mike
Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lenses Alien

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.Modell, Josh
Cymbals Eat Guitars 'Lenses Alien' (Barsuk)
''

.'' Retrieved 15 August 2011.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described the album as "darker" and "moodier" than '' Why There Are Mountains''.Heaney, Gregory
Lenses Alien - Cymbals Eat Guitars

. Retrieved 30 August 2011.

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

noted a diverse range of genres on the album, such as

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

.Pinnock, Tom
Album Review: Cymbals Eat Guitars - 'Lenses Alien'

. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.

Track listing

Reception

''Lenses Alien'' has received mostly positive reviews. On the review aggregate site

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album has a score of 79 out of 100, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".Critic Reviews for Lenses Alien

. Retrieved 30 August 2011.

's Gregory Heaney praised the album's darker sound, writing "This kind of shift marks Cymbals Eat Guitars as a band that is willing to grow their sound rather than just be content to release the same album again and again, making Lenses Alien an album that's not only a great follow-up to their first album, but a promise of good things yet to come." Mike LeChevallier of

, comparing the album positively to

, Pavement, and

, wrote "All three of those bands masterfully juggle creative lyrics with equally inventive music, something Cymbals Eat Guitars comes very close to achieving on Lenses Alien." In another positive review, Drowned in Sound's Simon Jay Catling wrote "With their nerve held, this is Cymbals Eat Guitars at an impressively high creative watermark still early in their career."Catling, Simon Jay
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lenses Alien
. Drowned in Sound. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011. Winston Robbins of

praised the album for getting over the

sophomore slump A sophomore slump (also known as a sophomore jinx or sophomore jitters) is when a sophomore fails to live up to the relatively high standards that occurred during freshman year. It is commonly used to refer to the apathy of students (second year ...

, writing "The album could have gone a bit smoother or carried a simpler, more cohesive theme, but at the end of the day, Cymbals Eat Guitars have succeeded in creating one of the year's most surprisingly transcendental sophomore albums."Robbins, Winston
Album Review: Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lenses Alien

. 1 September 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.

's Tom Pinnock was less receptive to ''Lenses Alien'' writing "While they mainly hit a balance between shifting symphonics, subtle keys and pyroclastic guitar, sometimes – such as on 'Plainclothes', a ballad/disco/punk-funk/noise jigsaw – there's just too much going on." However, Pinnock concluded, "But hey, layabouts, that's called taking a risk." Ian Cohen of

, in an otherwise positive review, agreed with Pinnock's sentiment, writing "The downside is how the music occasionally buckles under the weight of its own restlessness and D'Agostino's words-- a slightly skewed ratio of visceral immediacy to cerebral satisfaction making it a slight notch below '' Why There Are Mountains''."

Personnel

The following people contributed to ''Lenses Alien:''Lenses Alien, Cymbals Eat Guitars

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

. Retrieved 7 November 2011.

Cymbals Eat Guitars

* Joseph D'Agostino – guitar, vocals * Brian Hamilton – keyboards, vocals * Matthew Miller – percussion, drums * Matthew Whipple – bass guitar, vocals, guitar (baritone)

Additional personnel

* Heide Vanderlee – cello * John Agnello – producer, engineer * Greg Calbi – mastering * Ted Young – engineer * Theo Aronson – engineer * Jeremy Withers – layout

References

External links

Barsuk Record's page on ''Lenses Alien''
On The NJ Underground. {{Authority control 2011 albums Barsuk Records albums Albums produced by John Agnello