Audio Mixer: John McEntire.

Recording information: SOMA Electronic Music Studios, Chicago, IL.

Issued in late 2008, CAR ALARM marks the Sea & Cake's second studio album since its '07 reactivation, and stands as one of the Chicago post-rock act's most immediately engaging outings. Fronted, as always, by singer/guitarist Sam Prekop, the quartet launches into a Neu!-like motorik sound with the driving "Aerial," and later moves into Velvet Underground territory on the chiming and urbane "On a Letter." Though some fans may miss the Sea & Cake's earlier experimental-leaning era, CAR ALARM proves that the group is undeniably vital and still carrying the mantle of Windy City indie-rock royalty without burden.

Released 17 months after Everybody, a mere blink of an eye for this group of Renaissance men, Car Alarm represents an attempt by the Sea and Cake to be a working band -- for what may be the last time, what with family obligations to place among the vast array of outside interests. The album was written in a burst just after returning from an Australian tour, and recorded in a fairly quick span as well. The results seem to have refreshed this band of post-rock stalwarts, who may never need (or desire) a radical shift in sound, but should have already easily fallen prey to laziness -- an album where the adjective "workmanlike" becomes an insult rather than a compliment. Their brisk, efficient indie rock hasn't changed radically, but the insertion of an instrumental here and an electronics-heavy track there makes for needed counterpoint. The individual members of the quartet are still nearly telepathic in their group interplay; John McEntire's drums set the tone for each song while Eric Claridge's bass anchors the lower register, and the twin guitars of Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt scope out the higher frequencies. ~ John Bush