There is no standard growth chart for how rock bands develop over time, and Muuy Biien is a good example of that. Initially an outlet for singer Joshua Evans to explore ambient ideas on his own, the Athens, Georgia, project morphed into a quintet and quickly turned aggressive with the old-school punk of debut album This Is What Your Mind Imagines. Now on their third record, they’ve symbolically traded in their hardcore boots for leather pants, bringing a bit of goth pomp to southern-fried post-punk circumstance.
Age of Uncertainty is a lurching, glamorously wounded animal, snarling out its extended vowels and sweating out vintage rock ‘n’ roll disaffection. Its stomp and swagger are familiar but still unpredictable in the moment. The high-desert guitar riffs give way to saxophone solos, and “In the Pits” borrows a hook from Animotion’s “Obsession”. It’s a place where sometimes things make sense and don’t at the same time—wholly appropriate for these times, then.