Everything In Between

by 
AlbumSep 28 / 201014 songs, 41m 16s
Noise Pop Indie Rock
Popular Highly Rated

With song titles like \"Shed and Transcend\" and \"Skinned,\" you\'d think that No Age\'s new album is a love-or-hate leap into the unknown — a rebirth record that took six months of scrapped tracks and calloused hands to complete. While that\'s true on many levels, it\'s not *that* drastic of a shift. More like a refined take on the L.A. duo\'s last two LPs, a headphone-ready joy ride through the outer realm of ravaged indie rock, nail-gun-like noise, and meditative electronic music. So while songs like \"Glitter\" and \"Fever Dreaming\" balance their meaty hooks with sudden bursts of feedback and chalkboard-scratching chords, No Age also indulges their ambient side on \"Katerpillar\" and two solo efforts (the woozy downward-spiral loops of \"Dusted,\" the brief but heartbreaking post-rock of \"Positive Amputation\") that suggest the band could pull off a 21st-century punk version of OutKast\'s *Speakerboxxx / The Love Below* double-LP someday. For now, we\'re more than happy to hear Randy and Dean do their thing, striking a balance between the skate parks they grew up in and the art-damaged road ahead.

Recorded in Los Angeles from the end of 2009 and into 2010, Everything in Between is the new album from No Age, the duo of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall. They emerged from former band Wives in 2005, to become No Age, worldwide glowing talismans for the DIY art-punk scene in LA, now famously known as having its epicenter at The Smell, a clubhouse where art-life/music-life welded and inspired a creative movement and attitude which has fertilized a purple patch of likeminded punkers and artists around the globe. Since the release of Weirdo Rippers, their 2007 debut album (on FatCat Records), through Nouns, the band’s 2008 follow-up on Sub Pop, and beyond, No Age has earned enthusiastic notice from an incredibly wide array of sources; from Pitchfork to The New Yorker (“Let It Rip,” Nov. 19, 2007), and found themselves unlikely Grammy nominees (for Best Recording Packaging in 2008). No Age have risen from sweaty basement shows and art galleries to having their songs blast off the walls of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), to performing at unconventional spaces both close to home and abroad. And Everything in Between is a bold step in their creative evolution. It is a culmination of reflecting upon life’s ruptures and triumphs; the process of moving through these moments banged and bruised, yet better off for the wear and tear. They’ve pushed themselves in challenging and different directions, deconstructing their weird-out pop songs while still maintaining their original aesthetic and intent. Everything in Between sees No Age expand on the emotional force at the core of their catchy song-writing through tone, structure, noise, and samples. And, it’s their best record yet.

8.8 / 10

L.A. dream-punks' second LP matches a new, nuanced approach to their expansive noise with their sturdiest set of songs yet.

D+

At more than 35 minutes long, No Age’s third full-length, Everything In Between, is practically leisurely compared to Nouns and Weirdo Rippers, both of which were too antsy to shred through antic noise-rock for more than half an hour. Those extra seconds are spent integrating the band’s drum-and-guitar combo with the…

6 / 10

8.2 / 10

All muddied up

Check out our album review of Artist's Everything in Between on Rolling Stone.com.

It may take a while to become accustomed to, but the rewards are there for the taking.

On its third album, Everything in Between, the L.A. noise pop duo No Age doesn't do anything it hasn't done before.

A unique and refreshing DIY punk sound...‘Everything In Between’ is the third album from No Age, L.A duo Dean Spunt and Randy Randall.

8 / 10

The noise pop twosome of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall return with ‘Everything In Between’, their third fuzzed-out full length to date.

9 / 10

8 / 10

No Age aren't subtle, says Michael Cragg, but they know how to combine melody and noise to best effect

76 %

86 %

3.5 / 5

No Age - Everything In Between review: No Age are certainly living in the moment, and Everything In Between has a similar retention factor.

8 / 10