Adult.

Many outsiders might point to the latest emergence of the dark wave electronic scene, helmed by newcomers like Austra, Cold Cave and Zola Jesus, as the impetus for Adult.'s long-awaited return to music. But you can thank their passion for visual arts for something as laidback and unscripted as The Way Things Fall. The Detroit duo's fifth LP (and first in six years) was conceived after recording a few tracks for an art gallery performance. The resulting ten tracks that make up The Way Things Fall feel coyly uninterested in keeping Adult.'s brand of shivering paranoia alive. Utilizing analog instrumentation to craft relatively compact and cleanly structured pieces, the material on The Way Things Fall is given a pop sheen. Although vocalist Nicola Kuperus plays impeccably off Adam Lee Miller's pulsating rhythms, tracks like "New Frustration" and "At the End of it All" sit in limbo between fashioned and fashionable. The Way Things Fall remains a sometimes flawed, sometimes inspired, inadvertent return to form.