Still Night, Still Light, the new Au Revoir Simone album is out, and I am about apoplectic with general happiness. Missed them at Other Music last evening for their in-store, but am looking forward to their upcoming show at the Bowery Ballroom next week. I need to learn all of the lyrics so I can sing along.

ARS fans will love this top to bottom. The arrangements are more lush, more dissonant and dense. The sounds are better built and realized, and they change more often during the course of the songs - they really hold your interest sonically. The production of Tom Monihan has not altered the sound of melancholy, rainy Sunday afternoons and shimmer that fans love so much, but he has changed their approach and attack I think. And he has certainly worked with them on their vocals and their harmonies to wonderful effect. Their lyrics are so well done here. So well written. It is the promise of the last album, The Bird of Music, and it’s best tracks - Lark, The Way to There and A Violent Yet Flammable World - come to fruition. I have this on constant repeat at the moment, and am loving it every time around. There is such heartbreak here though. It never gets to be a downer; it never becomes depressing. It actually sounds so hopeful for being so sad. Who could have broken these beautiful girl’s hearts so badly? The fool(s)! On the one hand how dare they make these pop darlings sad; on the other - thanks for doing it and giving us this album.

Standouts like Knight of Wands, The Last One (amazing!), Shadows, Tell Me, We Are Here…are just amazing slow builds that pull at you, and have evolved from first crushes and kisses to mature expressions of the same 10-15 years later. This, to me, a mildly rabid fan, is the best of their 3 albums. It trumps their last album in all categories. It is a subtle maturing of a group of friends with a different sound and feminine/girlie overlay into a band who are no longer the sum of their musical limitations - although they are still the product of them. It is an amazing album!