HEALTH

L.A.’s HEALTH is not just one of the better bands in underground rock today, but also one of the most important ones, in that the music this band makes is truly unique. No band sounds like this band, and perhaps the only reference point would be the bleak industrial nihilism of Joy Division. HEALTH’s guitars shred like skill saws through sheets of tin with vocals that waft, form and relent—a narcotic high of shapeless bliss. Where HEALTH’s self-titled debut reveled in playful experimentation, Get Color is a focused, uncompromising journey through sound. Known to reinvent its tunes as dance mixes, here, the closest HEALTH leans in that direction is “Die Slow,” with a chorus that rises amid towering keyboards and ethereal voices, dissolving into a verse sick with signal bursts and concussive bass squalls that victimize speaker cones. The entirety of Get Color works similarly, with the band pushing the visceral qualities of its songs as firmly the musical characteristics, creating a gripping, unprecedented and vital listening experience.