Cymbals Eat Guitars

LOSE

At times short and bombastic, at others melodic and sprawling, LOSE has something for everyone yet still retains most of what made Cymbals Eat Guitars great on their last two releases.

It’s an impeccably beaten, teary-eyed but smiling document to a frighteningly exhilarating time of one’s life and beacon to march onward

Channeling profound loss, once-buried emotions, and a stronger sense of songwriting, these Staten Islanders have created something cathartic, life-affirming, and important.

The band may love the sounds of Built to Spill and Superchunk a little too much, but they’re also far too adventurous to settle for apery, least of all on LOSE. It’s their best work yet.

The music is once again outdone by D’Agostino’s lyrics, deeply personal and relatable, referential without being academic, prone to poetic flight and realistic grounding. 

At their core, Cymbals Eat Guitars is still the same band as before - just bigger and bolder, more sharpened and focused. And they’re better for it. 

For its themes of loss and longing, its wide-eyed sense of wistfulness, for all of its hopefulness in misfortune, Lose ends up being a win. And a major one at that.

Lose becomes a rewarding listen in no small part because of these stylistic diversions and the way the different parts fit together into an interesting, forward-moving whole.

As Cymbals Eat Guitars further shape the band's sound, the quartet manages to strike a balance between radio-friendly material and experimental urges with LOSE