Pretty Girls Make Graves

The Seattle punk-rock band is about to release their third album Élan Vital, the follow-up to the impressive The New Romance (2003), a complex, highly calculated display of technical prowess that somehow still managed to feel inspired, exciting and even moving. Two months ahead of its release date, the opening track in the new record has been posted on Matador Records' website. Along with everything else that has leaked so far, it would appear that PGMG are evolving and veering towards a more atmospheric, hypnotic post-rock sound, where the raw tension is still present but more contained, seldom coming out in the form of fist-pumping moments like they used to. Check out the haunting 'The Nocturnal House.'