Polyvinyl

Much like Elvis Costello did in the mid-‘70s when he ditched his band Flip City to go solo, Sonny Smith and his Sunsets turn in the fractured country rock of 2012’s Longtime Companion for New Wave on their fourth LP. But Antennas to the Afterworld’s variation on the genre aims truer to the dour art pop of The Modern Lovers than The Attractions on this strange and infectious concept album about intergalactic romance, as evidenced by tunes like “Girl on the Street” and “Primitive.” Elsewhere, the Sunsets transform the Companion cut “I See The Void” into something found on a flexi-disc that fell out of an old issue of Trouser Press. Antenna to the Afterworld is the strongest Sonny & The Sunsets album yet.