Lightouts, 'Want' -- 47 Second Album Reviews

Lightouts' debut album Want addresses fear in a very unconventional way: Through a battalion of fuzz. From the first note, these Brooklyn gladiators form a complex phalanx. They're outnumbered, they're scared, but for some reason they run as fast as they can, swords drawn, towards no man's land.

"We don't want to kill, we don't want to die" they scream on "The Big Picture," setting up the album's tense teetering. The protagonist's mentality wavers between that of a warrior and a scared little boy. Machismo is only present in the tremendously heavy chord progressions, while the lyrics allude to a 20-something that's totally terrified of love.

This dual view is best exhibited on the second track "The Cure for Shyness," in which singer Greg Nelson dares all fate with the words "Who wants it?" accompanied by a shield of blistering guitars.

Want is also sonically sophisticated. Lightouts somehow blend the vocals abilities of Bono, the campy choral effects of the Cure and the brutal crunch of Surfer Blood into something that totally works.

The Bottom Line: If you're looking for signs that guitar rock is returning to the front lines of indie, then check out Want's 13 tracks of thick sliced, meaty aggression, stacked between to toasty beds of dirt and distortion.