Hopewell - Good Good Desperation (2009)

For over a decade, Hopewell have evaded classification. Their first three LPs were beautiful sonic traffic jams that spanned the psych-glam of "Ziggy Stardust"-era Bowie and Jane's Addiction. Tattered, heartworn, heavy mountain jams, with a mad scientist's approach to production. On their latest, they capture the burning light and ecstatic fury of their live set in the studio and adorn it with out-of-the-ether blasts of cityscape sounds, hypnotic rhythmic breakdowns, and tight, arresting, jarring harmonies. An album of head music that'll keep your own shape-shifting mind wandering, shaking, and shimmying.