Good news, my friends! Chris Triggs has just released a brand new LaLaLettes album. It’s called Another 9 Songs, and (in my humble opinion) it’s the best LaLaLettes album to date. Whereas earlier albums by the godfather of antipop evoked sounds reminsicent of Smiley Smile era Beach Boys, early Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa, Another 9 Songs calls to mind (my mind, anyway) David Bowie.

The album opens with a track called “Sticks,” whose breathy falsetto gives the song a wistful quality. From there, the lyrics of the second track, “Corners,” offer a great free-association head trip, particularly as the coda repeats a fascinating — and catchy — series of zen meta mantras. Ending the song with this varying hook is the kind of thing that makes Chris one of my favorite indie musicians. He’s certainly not beholden to formulaic pop structures. Take, for example, song number three, “I Am a Tree,” the jarring quality of which ultimately gives way to a pleasant resolution.

Track four, “Prisoner of My Heart,” is where the David Bowie vibe really kicks in, while the following track, “Opalescent,” takes that vibe and gives it a Motown feel. The piano on that one, moreover, reminds me of the piano in Bowie’s “I’m Deranged” from the Lost Highway soundtrack. Next, “Did You Expect Me to Die for You?” has a cool 90s feel, and the one after that, “Sopheena” has a cool synth line that gives the song a menacing feel. It also includes (again going back to Bowie) a whispering vocal track that reminds me of the spoken-word lines in “Ashes to Ashes.” It’s a very cinematic track, and the guitars that come in about halfway through the song give it a spy-movie vibe.  The penultimate track, “Shadow Boxing,” proceeds at a haunting, stately pace, and juxtaposing it with the fun, bouncy vibe of “Theme from ‘Catapult’” at the end of the album calls to mind the Beatles’ decision to add a little bit of laughter at the end of “Within You Without You.”

Fittingly, the album begins and ends with the sound of radio static, which does a nice job of bookending the proceedings as if we’re receiving a brief and spectacular transmission from deep space!