*** Varnaline

SWEET LIFE

(Zero Hour)

Yes, it is possible to be musically schizoid and yet focused all at once. Over the course of three albums and an EP (all released inside two years), this sometimes one-man/sometimes three-man NYC unit has bled a range of styles -- brooding slowcore, searing post-punk, and hazy, hungover indie rock that nods to old masters like the Grifters and even older ones like Crazy Horse. Sweet Life finds singer/guitarist Anders Parker (who's joined here by his bass-playing brother John and drummer Jud Ehrbar) writing somber laments about dreary desolation, love that's irretrievably out of reach, and other downer themes. It's hard to imagine a more devastatingly pretty song than "Mare Imbrium," or a more fearsomely angry one than "Now You're Dirt." And that's really what this album and this band are about: the perfection of extremes.

-- Jonathan Perry