Lower Dens – Batman 7″ – Styrofoam Drone

Hailing from Baltimore comes the haze-rock outfit LOWER DENS. Led by the Texas native Jana Hunter, this is their first release since the 2010 effort “Twin-Hand Movement”, and they continue on beautifully right from where they left off.

One of the first forms of this song that was made available was this Yours Truly video. If you had the opportunity to view that, then by the time it was over you were probably rabidly scouring the internet for an audio file of the song. Or at least I was. That video captures this picture-perfect song in a highly appropriate fuzzy filter, which complements the hazy guitars and mysterious singing of Jana Hunter almost too thoroughly.

The 7″ version sounds slightly different, coming through your speakers with a little extra fuzz than you heard from the video. Hunter still sounds as mysterious as possible, but her voice manages to come off as gorgeous and comforting as anything. Once it’s paired with that invigorating, crystal-clear guitar howl, it’s game over. You’re not going to be looking for another song to play for quite awhile. This one forces you immediately to play it countless times, until which point you probably still won’t have enough of the song. The bruising drums and buzzing bass lines almost sound as if they could be one entity, coming at you relentlessly with enough power and force to leave you astonished for days. Becoming speechless after a song might not always be a good thing, but it definitely is this time around. Needless to say, this is already one of the most perfect songs to come off the press in 2011.

B-side “Dear Betty Baby” takes a noticeably different approach right from the get-go, and it’s a near six minute song. Starting off with a sad but classy piano, this definitely already sounds different than the A-side. There’s a thick, smokey atmosphere screening everything, coming from the obscurity of those glistening and cloudy guitars. The song continues to grow and pick up momentum as it progresses, eventually reaching it’s climax about three-quarters of the way through, but it’s done with a bit more subtlety than you probably expected.

“Dear Betty Baby” is a unique song in it’s own right, but trying to top an A-side track like “Batman” proves to be nearly impossible. It’s almost the assumption coming into the second track, because seriously, how many songs can be that good? If you still don’t know what we’re talking about, please listen to “Batman” below and we’ll be on the same page. Get yr repeat buttons ready…