Otero War

Haunting, synth-soaked melancholy fills the Brooklyn group\'s third album. It’s familiar terrain for the band, but the execution of *Otero War* makes it their most elaborate and refined release to date. Singer Matthew Iwanusa floats though a fog of vintage keyboards and pizzicato strings on “The State of Mind,” as well as the glowing mid-tempo haze of “Believe.” When the tempos quicken, as on highlights like “On My Own” or “Lean on You,” Caveman packs a visceral punch.

Like the two Caveman albums before it, Otero War could be an accessory to a generic and fictionalized network-tv retelling of “indie rock in the 2010s.”

Is this the same Caveman we met on 2011's WWF-referencing Coco Beware? Is it even the same group we were re-introduced to two years later on their self-titled sophomore LP?