Holy (2008)

Over their 14-year career, indie-rock stalwarts Love as Laughter have often produced music that is willfully uncommercial and even absurd. (The Brooklyn-based outfit's last release, Laughter's Fifth, had a reference to the Pauly Shore comedy Encino Man, rough-hewn arrangements that obscured frontman Sam Jayne's songs, and a darned kazoo!) Holy is a different beast altogether. The crisp production by onetime Clash engineer Joe Blaney brilliantly showcases Jayne's writing, which has never been more tightly skilled or confidently ambitious: Both the eponymous opener and the subsequent track ''Crosseyed Beautiful Youngunz'' are gorgeous laments that little prepare you for the glorious Afro-pop-tinged single ''All Parts of Me'' or the sinister, shuffling ''Cleaning Man.'' And while the lyrics of the Wilco-ish ''Konny and Jim'' include a nod to Iron Butterfly's ''In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida,'' it is still more lovely than laughable. A-
DOWNLOAD THIS: Hear ''Konny and Jim'' at www.loveaslaughter.net