ADULT. - Kissing Luck Goodbye [CD]

ADULT. Is not cooperating. For over 25 years, the dystopian Detroit synth-punk institution founded by Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller has embodied steadfast frustration, distrust, and apprehension. One might expect the edges to soften with time, but ADULT. Is not interested in the comforts of legacy. The duo's music has never sounded as visceral, urgent, and downright angry as it does on the culminating, uncompromising Kissing Luck Goodbye. Built with upgraded gear and a new library of sounds, the material is crushingly dynamic, louder-yet-clearer, with Kuperus' commanding delivery given greater prominence in the mix, outlining an arsenal of vivid, caustic calls, chants, and musings. Laughter, whether in the lyrics or as a possessed presence, serves as a leitmotif that speaks to the menacing absurdity of modern times. "THE CHAOS IS WHAT THEY WANT," she sings on "R U 4 $ALE", doubling as a declaration of intent: to meet a burning world of greed and disarray with defiant, masterfully assembled chaos. "You have two choices in this hellscape we're living in right now, which is either fight or be depressed," says Miller. "Either one is okay. But, you know, the choice was simple." ADULT. Is known for high-stakes catharsis on stage, and recently deployed their back catalog of bass guitar songs from the 2000s, retracing the prescient Anxiety Always-era partially out of necessity given the temperature of today's political and technological dread. The response was instant and palpable: "We were in Paris, and the kids were stage diving. And I was like, this is rad. This is kind of the energy I want to get back into," Kuperus says. The epiphany coincided with a series of setbacks - Kuperus' bouts with chronic vertigo, the loss of their close friend and collaborator Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb, whom the album is dedicated to - all made profoundly worse under the looming regime. "We're just like everything's breaking. We're breaking. We're broken." The sentiment didn't stick, however, as they found themselves ultimately too supercharged by fury to sit still. The vibe heading into Kissing Luck Goodbye was four middle fingers pointed straight up