''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, that was founded by the members of the band This Busy Monster, Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, in 1998 to release their band's material. Its logo is a draw ...

Barsuk Records Barsuk Records ( ) is an independent record label based in Seattle, Washington, that was founded by the members of the band This Busy Monster, Christopher Possanza and Josh Rosenfeld, in 1998 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. 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 were an American indie pop band from New York City, formed in 2007. The band centered around founding member and principal songwriter Kip Berman (vocals, guitar). In the band's final iteration, Berman was joined ...

in 2009 and playing at the 2010 Lollapalooza.Cymbals Eat Guitars at Lollapalooza 2010
. Lollapalooza. 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, fi ...

. 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 publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

. 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. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

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

to record a followup 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 Stereogum, 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 centered on Pi ...

Bedhead BedHead is a comedy web series created by Jon Dalgaard, Claire Phillips, Tom Keele, Reece A. Jones & Benjamin Mathews. Filmed in Sydney, Australia, the series allows the audience to hear the thoughts of two old friends, Paul and Sarah, who end up ...

and

slowcore Slowcore is a subgenre of alternative rock and indie rock. The music of slowcore artists is generally characterized by bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies, slower tempos and minimalist arrangements. Slowcore is often used interchangeably with the ...

. 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, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

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.Palermino, Christopher
FULL ALBUM STREAM: Cymbals Eat Guitars
Spin. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011. The album cover was originally a collage 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 subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

bands such as Superchunk and Built to Spill.Ryan, Kyle
Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lenses Alien

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American 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 cre ...

. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.LeChevallier, Mike
Cymbals Eat Guitars: Lenses Alien
Slant Magazine. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.Modell, Josh
Cymbals Eat Guitars 'Lenses Alien' (Barsuk)
'' Spin.'' Retrieved 15 August 2011.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

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 and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

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

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

, post-hardcore and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

.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 a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, 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 Slant Magazine, comparing the album positively to Built to Spill, Pavement, and Superchunk, 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 or sophomore jinx or sophomore jitters refers to an instance in which a second, or sophomore, effort fails to live up to the relatively high standards of the first effort. It is commonly used to refer to the apathy of students ...

, 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. 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