For their third album,
Little Joy, Australian post-punk minimalists
My Disco decided it was time to make a change. Like their second album, Paradise, they recorded the album with engineer extraordinaire
Steve Albini, but when it came time to finish production on the album they made the surprising choice to work with
Silverchair and
the Presets producer
Scott Horscroft. Surprisingly, the record retains the band’s minimal style, with
Horscroft allowing
Albini’s raw recording style to shine through, showcasing the dark and biting sound the band has cultivated over the years. This choice proves to be a boon to
My Disco, whose minimal, repetitive sound is enhanced by the ability to hear all of the jagged edges of their angular sound, creating a sense of depth through the timbre of the instruments rather than through the quantity of them. It’s this quality that makes
Little Joy an engrossing listen. Through the use of simple repetition, songs like “Young” and “Rivers” do more than just draw the listener into the song; they draw them into the room with the band, giving them time to explore every choppy, dissonant chord and the chant-like vocal passages. What
My Disco might lack in dynamics, they more than make up with atmospherics, showing again and again on
Little Joy that sparse arrangements can feel just as spacious as grander recordings.