The Arm Reviewed

The Arm

Call You Out (Indierect)

Eighties post-punk revivalism is now in the process of eating itself, but the Arm's second album skirts that stylistic straitjacket with the darting determinism of an apocalyptic cockroach. The band's kinetic call-and-response instrumentation connects the dots between 1979 Manchester and 1989 Washington, D.C., while singing organist Sean O'Neal rails against the grind with the tweaked ferocity of a street preacher. The agit-spaz Austin quartet gets away with being in the thrall of the Cold War herky-jerk thanks to the uncommon passion and intensity they bring to the task, and at just under 27 minutes, Call You Out is a quick ride. The gray-hued "I Have a Secret That Will Ruin You" makes for a sluggish lead cut, but the Arm find a sharp-cornered cadence on "The Privileged Few" that doesn't let up until Out ends. "I'd Like to Make a Complaint" reinvents Girls Against Boys as artful revolutionaries before "Lovers & Agents" turns the tension inward by pitting Kevin Bybee's tribal toms against a keyboard melody that could precede departure announcements at a European airport. The album reaches an explosive apex with "Song for Lewd Businessmen," a tight, two-minute drive that demands an all-body bob. Call You Out may stop short, but there's strength in the Arm's unpadded efficiency.