Last week, I walked into Amoeba Music on a whim after seeing the following tweet:

Reassurance is one thing, but I felt blown away considering I was watching a band play a promo set inside a cavernous, flourescent-lit ex-bowling alley. For FREE. Sure it was a little slack (in that good Pavement-kinda way), but the sound this duo put out from a tiny sound system was huge and beautiful. They plowed through a bunch of tunes off their new album and clearly enjoyed playing them out - some of them, admittedly, for the first time.

Having the privilege of hearing "Individ" in its entirety before the release date, I knew what the crowd at Amoeba would soon learn: the power, beauty and pleasure that The Dodos exhibited on stage pervades their new album in epic fashion.

'Precipitation' begins the album and busts its palette wide open over the course of six minutes: moody acoustic strumming gives way to anthemic guitar melodies - all powered by creative, rhythmic blasts of drumming and accented by the band's sparse use of harmony. The intro song sets the bar high and the rest of the album follows suit, dabbling in mood and pace, but consistently delivering quality pop songs.

What's reassuring is knowing that I've got this album in my arsenal and can look forward to seeing The Dodos live again very soon at the Great American Music Hall on February 11th!

The video for the first single 'Competition' encapsulates my feelings about the band: they are by nature contradictory, creating beautiful, striking, and entertaining music through sparse, simple ideas - like a drumbeat turned on it's head to accommodate some backward (sometimes literally) guitar.

Feel free to smile broadly when the dancing in "Competition" moves you: