
ADULT.
Becoming Undone (Dais)
Every time Adult. release a new album, roughly biennially except when it isn’t, it always seems like a fresh opportunity to tell people how quality they are. Too macabre and rigid to be accepted as a pop band, even with that sensibility very audible in their fizzing electro-industrial, they had a proto-electroclash club hit of sorts once – a moment where this Detroit duo stood tall among the city’s techno legacy, but Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller never seemed inclined to exploit that.
Becoming Undone comprises eight goth-friendly chuggers replete with squealing synths, metallic-timbred drums and Kuperus’ dramatic, scornful vocal delivery. Primarily uptempo, the transition between the techno-adjacent I Am Nothing and the slowed-down tripper She’s Nice Looking is nevertheless only jarring inasmuch as Adult. are a wilfully jarring experience at their best. A worthwhile reshuffle of their broad aesthetic, but newcomers to the duo can start with this album if they want – or another one. It’s all good!
words NOEL GARDNER