Autolux is back after their typical 6 year hiatus with their third album, Pussy’s Dead.

I like the way it kicks off with ‘Selectallcopy’ which starts off mellow with Greg Edwards and his Lennon-esque voice before some distorted guitar rakes in half way through it.

The likely lead single, the second track Soft Scene, is probably one of the least accessible tracks on the album and is more electronic/experimental. The last minute of it sounds like an extended remix.

Hamster Suite and Junk for Code continue the Radiohead Kid-A sounding vibe which frankly kinda bores me here. Maybe with repeated listens I’ll grow to appreciate them but after a few tries I don’t see me coming back to them much. They both feel like they definitely have something there as Junk for Code has a great chorus with a lot of hope but feels too hushed, and the rest of the song and its verses just seem rambling and unfinished.

Anonymous brings back the Lennon-as-Radiohead sound with Greg slowly singing over a piano with some electronica beats over top.

If I was new to Autolux and this was my first taste, I probably wouldn’t venture far after the first few tracks and it’s the second half of the album that I like most.

After Anonymous it gets kicking with Brainwasher, Reappearing, and Change My Head. They are more my speed and those are the ones with one foot in the Future Perfect world. They show their Beatles and psychedelic rock influences versus the earlier electronica influenced tracks.

Pussy’s Dead is good but this listener has yet to fall in love with this much electronica/experimentalism. I also don’t get the overall album arrangement though maybe that’ll become more obvious, and some songs just don’t feel finished which is an odd thought to have seeing how it’s been 6 years since the previous album, Transit Transit.

In the end I don’t think any of the songs are as strong as the best tracks on Future Perfect. Future Perfect was a favorite from 2004 and easily one of my top 20 from the 2000s.