The Competition

by 
AlbumSep 06 / 201911 songs, 44m 2s
Synthpop
Popular

The fourth album from Lower Dens, The Competition is a pop album with a concept both emotionally and politically urgent, dealing with modern capitalism and its psychotic effects. Its 11 songs range in scope from the personal to the political, but overall express an epiphany: you need radical and unquestioning compassion for yourself if you’re to reimagine what society could be.

67

6.7 / 10

The sleek Baltimore synth-pop band's latest might be their most explicitly political and theoretical work, tackling nothing less than the socio-psychological ravages of capitalism.

8 / 10

Jana Hunter's project resurfaces, more urgent than ever

8.6 / 10

By the time of 2015's Escape from Evil, Baltimore's Lower Dens had significantly reconfigured the eerie dream pop of their earliest albums into something equal parts disaffected indie rock and '80s-inspired synth pop. The scrappy haze of distortion and reverb that the band started out with cleaned up nicely with sharper guitar lines, more distinctively mixed vocals, and most melodies being delivered through beaming synthesizers. Fourth album The Competition doubles down on Lower Dens' moves towards maxed-out synth pop, reducing the dreamy rock band nature of their past to a whisper sitting at the core of their neon-lit low-key pop constructions.

Ditching the accompanying band for his new album, Jana Hunter embraces the 80s aesthetic further on his fourth effort.

6 / 10

A lot can change in four years — just ask Lower Dens. Since releasing their acclaimed third album Escape From Evil in 2015, the Baltimore dr...

7.5 / 10

The end of Lower Dens’ video for “Young Republicans” shows a scene of people in red suits in a red room eating Jana Hunter’s insides.

7 / 10

It might be hard to believe in 2019, but at the turn of the decade a lot of the more notable innovations happening in alternative music seemed to be

The album questions the notion that competition is essential to human progress.

8.0 / 10

Lower Dens' new full-length The Competition, album review by Adam Fink. The full-length drops today via Ribbon Music and various streaming services

7 / 10