The Stranger reviews Division Of Laura Lee's "Black City"

Rating: ****

Already garnering comparisons to Girls Against Boys, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Drive Like Jehu, Sweden's Division of Laura Lee do an excellent job twisting woozy shoegazer rock around antsy post-punk guitar rhythms. Their second release, Black City, is drenched in effects pedals and padded with odd little scraps of noise--wailing sirens, moaning women, honking horns, or dialing phones--thickening the reverb one minute and stripping the material back to a hyperactive punk track the next. The band has the keen ability to slouch into a melodic stupor of electronic noise, stumbling around in a stylishly moody haze for a couple songs before uncoiling a live-wire anthem that reveals a fiercer side (with lyrics like, "I'm not your toy for penetration"). As summer slowly gives way to the darker months, discs like Black City create the perfect union between narcotic numbness and a more menacing fire inside.

-JENNIFER MAERZ

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