Audiopile Review: Chicago trio Lifeguard return to indie-rock stable Matador with Ripped & Torn, which, after five years of various singles, EPs and a comp, stands in as essentially their first proper full length. While the band’s initial set of EPs and singles hadn’t totally clicked with us, we did completely fall for Lifeguard guitarist/vocalist Kai Slater’s Sharp Pins and his pair of recent albums of inward-facing lo-fi power pop. With a reassessment on our part now overdue, Slater’s better known band, formed alongside a pair of high school pals, now has our full attention with this seriously striking debut. While Sharp Pins is a rather focused project, dealing in the hushed sounds of Marc Bolan’s psych-folk era of Tyrannosaurus Rex as repurposed through the jangle of a long-lost Whaam! Records act, Lifeguard’s berth is far wider. Essentially a trainspotting effort distilled from decades worth of indie rock in many of its variations, the references to the past forty years of underground guitar rock will make even the seasoned enthusiast’s head spin. Rarely pausing for a breath during the thirty-minute album’s incessant headrush of songs, the trio tackle the disco-infused post-punk of The Rapture, the sugary speed of Superchunk, the aggressive art-pop of major label Hüsker Dü, and even shades of the metallic cyber-punk of Six Finger Satellite rear its head here. No doubt others out there will hear something else buried in the album’s bottomless, hook-laden energy. All this created by a group fresh out of high school. God damn.

***

Ripped and Torn on June 6. The youthful trio of Asher Case, Isaac Lowenstein, and Kai Slater have been making music together since they were in high school, nearly a quarter of their lives. Noisy and immediate, cryptic but heartfelt, they draw inspiration from punk, dub, power-pop and experimental sounds, and bring them all together in explosive inspiration.

Over their two prior summers on Matador, Lifeguard’s EPs carefully documented the band’s early, earnest, studio explorations. But their tremendous live shows, anchored by Lowenstein’s rock-steady backbeat, hinted that something greater was waiting in the wings. On Ripped and Torn, the barbed-wire sound frames Slater and Case’s newly rich two-part harmonies and collagiste lyrics. Producer Randy Randall (No Age) captures a claustrophobic scrappiness that conjures the feeling and energy of the house parties and live shows, where ears are easily overwhelmed, and ragged improvisations connect with the same force as melodic hooks.

The band remains a singular and intimate space where freedom, noise, and melody find visceral form. “The physical element is something we’re all very together on,” explains Slater. “The immediacy of making music. The instant pleasure and satisfaction of it.”