Five years, three studio albums, and multiple EPs in, it remains nearly impossible to pin down the sound of this joyfully discursive Brooklyn quintet. But Science is, in the best sense, art — the band's swirling eddy of broken-down doo-wop, shivery post-punk, funk, and rock feels like a bridge from the past to a sonic future the rest of us just haven't caught up to yet. And even as the album's moods shift dramatically, from the überfunky ''Dancing Choose'' to the hazy, mournful ''Family Tree,'' the band's commitment to inspired storytell­ing never flags. In the end, when Tunde Adebimpe and co-vocalist Kyp Malone sing of a ''Golden Age''—''the age of mir­acles, the age of sound'' — it sounds less like wishful thinking than a promise.

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