Localized Everything Absent Or Distorted

Funerals can either be mournful, sorrowful occasions or a celebration of a life well lived, which seems a fitting way for Everything Absent Or Distorted to go out: The Denver band, which announced over the summer that it was calling it quits, built its relatively brief career on songs that tugged at heartstrings in conflicting directions. EAOD’s swan song, We Are The Lucky One, makes good on that legacy. Even more than on its predecessor, The Great Collapse, Lucky One is a lesson in restraint. The band—comprising eight core members and a long list of guest spots—never resorts to piling on in an Arcade Fire-like fashion. By sprawling band standards, the EP is downright minimal: keyboards, guitars, and multiple vocalists come and go as needed, with the musicians understanding the value of stepping to the back of the stage when songs don't call for their skills. “The Lucky Ones Get A Break / The Closeness Of Pins” is a panoramic number with a dynamic that builds from a twilight brass arrangement to a sweeping, almost arena-rock-like majesty. “Infant in Arms” is more conventional with a sturdy backbeat there for the band’s bubbly melodies and doleful vocals to ride atop. With We Are The Lucky One, we’re saying goodbye to EAOD and the band plays its own requiem. True to the best funerary music, it’s simultaneously a triumphant and solemn affair. Grade: A-