Minus Story My Ion Truss : A-

For three years, I have been enamored with Minus Story. I was hooked by their stunning album, The Captain is Dead, Let the Drum Corpse Dance. It pulled me in with its lo-fi charm, gentleness, and a dose of the kind of happiness that you can only muster once you've been into the deepest depths of melancholy. The band followed this release with No Rest for Ghosts, an album that expanded on the themes of love, hope, and ghostly apparitions, while also allowing the band to develop a more focused and cohesive sound. Now, My Ion Truss shows the band as they take another leap into strange, yet comforting territory.\nThe album begins with the dreamy, "In Line" as the lead singer, Jordan Geiger, mournfully emits a nasally passage containing cryptic prose. Then Minus Story sonically sucker punches your fragile ears and unleashes one of their most passionate and powerful songs to date, "Aaron". Rumbling drum fills, saxophone wails, guitar feedback, and haunting echoes create a chaotic and beautiful mess that is reminiscent of the forcefulness of this unassuming band's live performances. The band then gives listeners breathing room by offering up the energetic, yet airy, "Stitch me Up". The album shows Minus Story shedding their lo-fi psychedelic skin in favor of a more polished, but no less endearing, sound which demonstrates the evolution and maturity of the band. \nOne element that remains for the band, is their ability to pour the most gut-wrenching and heartbreaking feelings into their work. The drumming is urgent and punctual, the guitars are thick and distorted, the keyboards are delicate and composed, and Geiger's voice is assured, yet sometimes mournful and haunting. The result is an album that is entirely unique from the band's previous work, but still undeniably Minus Story.