Cloak/Dagger

2 songs on 7 inches from 1 band with 2 names; Cloak/Dagger's latest 7" offers two more upbeat songs of self-loathing punk rock that belong on your turntable.

Where 2007's We Are was some frantic, jangly, almost jazzy punk groovin', this record is more straightforward and simple. (Dare I utter the word "pop"? Listen to "Concentration Camps" and decide for yourself.) Makes sense in the seven-inch format; there's not nearly as much room to play around. A brisk two minutes per side leave me wishing this were a cube instead of a flat circle (6 sides > 2).

The vocal performance is also slightly different from past recordings. It's as if the desperation from songs like "Sunburnt Mess" has been ever-so-subtly replaced with a suspicious apathy. There's no lyric sheet but most of the vocals are intelligible, at least enough to discern that these guys haven't found eternal happiness just yet.

As always, extra points for offering song downloads with the vinyl, but this really sounds great at 45rpm.