Music Review: that dog.

that dog.
"Old LP" (UME)
that dog. "Old LP" (UME)

That dog. is near the top of any reasonable person's list of bands that should've been huge, especially by the standards of the '90s noise-pop continuum. They weren't just biz babies who could Really Sing and Play. They had their own sound: chamber-pop grunge that piled on the three-part harmonies and Petra Haden's not-always-sweet violin, while still managing to be louder than Weezer (who once gave frontwoman Anna Waronker a lead vocal, as if to illustrate what could've been).

This crowdfunded fourth album arrives 22 years after the third and pulls off another balancing act. It doesn't sound like it could have been made by anyone else, yet it doesn't sound like any of its predecessors, and it's as great as anything they've ever done. They challenge themselves like no reunion band; you won't hear a more frenetic rocker in 2019 than "Just the Way," or a sweeter orchestration than the title tune, a tribute to Rachel Haden's late jazz-legend dad Charlie. Everything else nestles arrestingly in between, maturing melodically while exploding harder than anyone working their increasingly rarefied circuit. We'll take a fifth.

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