Jeff Matz steps into the bass chair here and tightens the whole machine down, giving founder Matt Pike and drummer Des Kensel a fourth album that hits harder while swinging less wild. Jack Endino, who cut his teeth on Nirvana and the early Sub Pop grunge records, runs the board and keeps the low end punching instead of smearing. Revolver named it the third-best album of 2007, and it still sits at 80 on Metacritic, critics agreeing the tighter songwriting cost the band nothing in weight.
