** Home

13: NETHERREGIONS

(Jetset)

Home have now put out 13 albums since 1992. On their 13th, Netherregions, the quartet's agenda is much as it was six years ago: to combine left-of-center songwriting, at times reminiscent of Devo or the Residents, with plenty of experimental sonic dabbling (samples, tape loops, effects processing, lo-fi recording techniques, odd instrumentation). Every song here has its coherent moments and its requisite lost-in-space section. "The Bogeymen," for example, is almost a normal pop song until the coda, when the Homesters reduce the tape speed drastically every eight bars to create a disorienting, almost sinister tone.

"Another Season" is a lovely piano-based instrumental; "Turn Away" takes a while to get going but then rewards with some ear-catching processed cello; "Work" features a percussion track that sounds like someone hitting a tin can with a spoon while at the same time wiping a guitar's fretboard with a cloth. The rest of the album either meanders pointlessly ("A Christmas to the Easter") or offers wretched, pitch-wary singing ("The Pearls Hang Loosely"). All of Home's ideas are interesting, but they're not consistently appealing.

-- Mac Randall