Anyone familiar with Xiu Xiu's previous records will be aware of their stubborn determination to plough their own furrow. The avant garde qu+artet are more art project than band, and their ninth album continues that trend in flagrant fashion – at the unfortunate expense of the listener. Most of the songs are devised solely via analogue synths and a drum machine, and the likes of Lawrence Liquors and The Silver Platter meld in a mass of dark, unlistenable, turgid nonsense. Jamie Stewart's breathy recitations about love and sex are as pretentious as they come on Black Dick and New Life Immigration. The saving grace is the dark synth-pop of Stupid in the Dark, but the excruciating squeal of a chainsaw on closing track Red Classroom epitomises this album's painful, pointless pomposity. xiuxiu.org LAUREN MURPHY

Download: Stupid in the Dark