After operating in strictly D.I.Y. fashion for their first two albums, playfully irreverent garage pop outfit
Chemtrails
finally left main singer/songwriter
Mia Lust
's living room behind to work on their third album with producer
Margo Broom
(
Goat Girl
,
Big Joanie
). Fans may be relieved to learn that while
Broom
did ratchet up the intensity of their sound a notch in the studio, together they keep things raw, frank, fun, and friskily psychedelic on the resulting
The Joy of Sects
. The puns keep coming on tracks like "Detritus Andronicus," which starts the album off with a
Bo Diddley
-like rhythm, handclaps, and harmonized backing vocals alongside rumbling bass tones, organ, and lyrics such as the concluding "You know I'm never gonna let this slide." The attitude remains free-spirited throughout but especially on songs including tuneful psych-popper "Business Class War Paint" and album highlight "Join Our Death Cult," a retro-colored pop-punk banger that bears witness to the almost comic evilness of the ruling class as well as everyone else's tendency to not have the time or energy to do anything about it. That captures the world view of the record as a whole, with the driving "Sycophant's Paradise" wryly offering a masochistic fantasy along with a witchier surf bent, and "Apocalypstick" spooking with a spoke-sung, queer-slanted historical overview. The latter song is followed by another highlight, the infectious instrumental jam "(Post-Apocalypstick)."
closes with the more serious "Endless Stream of the Bizarre," a plodding, ominous march into the absurdity of modern times that makes reference to clichéd diary-entry attempts amidst world destruction and "death visions of spreadsheets." Taken together, though, the album is a strong contender for any end-of-the-world party playlist. ~ Marcy Donelson