Review - You Are Being Videotaped

Opening explosively with the caterwauling synth-thud of "The One Condition" and closing sublimely with the delicate "Easy Assault," the biggest problem with You Are Being Videotaped is the sad gratitude of knowing that this L.A. quartet has likely given all they've got on this debut album. Their crushing atmospherics, relentless energy and future-rock cataclysms are perfectly wonderful right here and right now. The energy level is kept to an appropriately post-punk high, but it's never at the expense of sonic density; some songs utilize keyboards for impact, others guitars, still others strings ... if The Walkmen were perpetually as aggrieved as they are on "The Rat," they'd sound like this.