Almost without fail, every year there's an album that hits me late. Early in the following year, I become obsessed — and that was the case last year with Nation of Language's 2023 record, Strange Disciple. Today, the New York synthpop trio are back with their first new music since that LP, making their Sub Pop debut and continuing their work with LCD Soundsystem's Nick Millhiser behind the boards on "Inept Apollo."
There is something instantly transportive about Ian Richard Devaney's voice, which leaps with an operatic ease, yet maintains a soft-focus diaphanousness as it curls around lyrical transmissions just vague enough to feel applicable to any situation. Against the bedrock of wife Aidan Noell's dynamic layers of synths and Alex MacKay's nimble basslines, "Inept Apollo" continues the band's '80s revivalism with a vitality that feels truly timeless.