!!!'s fourth album establishes the band's dance-imperative legacy

!!!

'Strange Weather, Isn't It?'

(Warp)

If !!! is coasting, 10-plus years into an underexposed, overactive career, it's only because that's what fans demand. "Strange Weather, Isn't It?"is their fourth full-length, and rides the same galloping disco-punk beat as their earliest work — right onto a packed dance floor, followed by the slinky guitar, rubbery bass lines and dub-inflected production that are the NYC band's trademark. New to "Strange Weather" is vocalist Shannon Funchess, formerly of Seattle punk-funk band IMIJ, whose husky soul-diva vocals counter main man Nic Offer's breathy jive mantras.

With these two leading the charge, "Strange Weather" is a consummate party record, equally apropos of sunny afternoon barbecues and loose, late-night debaucheries. Tracks flow into one another, DJ-set-style, a perpetual groove as hypnotic as it is assertive. Along the way, some songs evoke others from the band's oeuvre, not unpleasantly, a continuity establishing !!!'s dance-imperative legacy. This is what we expect from !!!; this is what they give; this is very good.

Other new releases

Isobell Campbell & Mark Lanegan, "Hawk" (Vanguard)

JJ Grey & Mofro, "Georgia Warhorse" (Alligator)

Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream" (Capitol)

The Sword, "Warp Riders" (Kemado)

Usher, "Versus" (La Face)

Jonathan Zwickel: jzwickel@seattletimes.com