With a couple of years lived since the release of Irrelevant Future, New Haven band Estrogen Highs is back with its fourth full-length, Hear Me On The Number Station. Though the group churns out uptempo garage anthems—and they retain that same jagged punk edge on The Number Station—several songs fall comfortably into the realm of jangly lo-fi alongside Peter Gutteridge or Guided By Voices circa-Alien Lanes.
The opening track on the album, “Argyle Enthusiast”, features a distorted guitar line over a thin acoustic strum with a driving pop rhythm. The relaxed, lilting vocals recall Dinosaur Jr. and spin a story in a mere two minutes with a few loaded phrases. We get a darkly funny portrait of a Reagan supporter in argyle, stomping around his yard with hands on his hips as vocalist Stefan Christensen intimates, “Well, I never crossed his land, and I’d never do it alone.” The song is disarming in the full narrative and range of instrumentation it manages despite its brevity. It’s an apt opener for the new record, which ranges from restrained to noisy across the span of 18 tracks.
Hear Me On The Number Station is available on vinyl September 30 from Trouble in Mind.
