It's always exciting when a new band tries to reinvent rock's wheel, but it isn't always pleasant. Unhistories is the type of album that's more of an appreciation than an actual enjoyment. It's easy to admire Singer's ability to deconstruct rock music to a pulp, but with no hooks, no conventional structure, and just a bleak meandering trudge left over, there's not much left to enjoy. The album plods along unwillingly, like one big bleary disjointed song hanging in the same key with atonal shards, off-time pentatonic scales, and disjointed clashing strums. Barely holding the mishmash together is a winding falsetto harmony line veering in and out of the dissonance. There's a certain charm to loose music and spiraling monotony, but Singer have no semblance of chemistry: when the bass player locks in on a guitar part, the drummer is doing his own thing, fluttering off time, and the other guitarist is noodling away in a completely different world. Because the members of the band have proven track records in their endeavors, prior fans will probably defend the merit of the record faithfully — without truly "getting it" — but it feels more like a hoax or a whim than a well-thought vision, and one with no real payoff. Call it no wave, call it freak funk, call it avant-garde brilliance, but in actuality it just sounds like Prince on really, really bad acid. People who respect bands merely for their artistic sensibilities and originality will find a lot to like in Singer, but those who demand more probably won't understand. - AMG

1. Slow Ghosts
2. Divining
3. Please, Tell The Justices We’re Fine
4. Oh Dusty
5. Dumb Smoke
6. Party Lessons
7. Mauvais Sang