ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ [CD]

Starring's ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ combines minimalist musical patterns with dreamy poetry to create a new style front-woman Clara Hunter likes to call "sparkle prog." It captures the frenetic energy of the band's live show, but here it is overlain with a new palate of synthesizers, delay effects, drum processing, aux percussion, and vocals that create delicate, but sometimes radical juxtapositions between the lyrical and the experimental. Though songs like "the best" and "aphonia" channel the loud, raw, and repetitive "circus punk" of Starring's early releases, much of this record speaks with a broader sense of expressive depth.