The video to Confetti opener Weapons For War begins in a field. There areshots of tall grass and wild flowers and berries, as well as the insects whosedrone provides a segue to the song's forthcoming hum. It works really well. ALull are a Chicago outfit that specialize in rangy, wildly percussive indie popthat takes a lot of its rhythmic cues from Sigur R髎' most recent LP, 2008's Me?su??eyrum vi?spilum endalaust (translation: With a buzz in our ears we playendlessly), as well as that of frontman J髇si's 2010 solo outing, Go. Both ofthose records demonstrated the Icelanders' transition into more contained popformats, though the kineticism of Go in particular is the better jumping offpoint. Like this wide-open field, it was a record alive at every turn. A Lullseem to be in similar pursuit, tripping up only in figuring out a way to squeezeit all into song form.Much of what's to be heard on Confetti scans as a series of thoroughlyfleshed-out vocal and rhythmic exercises, many of them so similar they congealinto one. Take for instance the blippy rumble of Dark Stuff or that of SomeLove just before it. While the rhythms and drum sounds vary slightly from oneanother, the vocal acrobatics of frontman Nigel Evan Dennis tend to glueeverything together in an oddly disjointed manner. Elsewhere, Pregnancy takeson an industrial punch that still seems to sound of a piece with Spread It AllAround. This, despite the many angles from which he attacks them. From end toend, Dennis delivers a tireless performance: he darts, he dives, he dips, hesprinkles syllables in fizzy staccato and\u002For he smears them across a song inbreathy fashion. Little of this done without an added layer of processing.While it's clear a lot the textures here have been calibrated just so, theaggressive manner in which this crew opted to produce the record makes for aflat, synthetic sheen that takes a lot away from the multi-dimensional soundmultiple drummers can provide. A few years back a North Carolina band made anonline splash approaching Animal Collective's pre-Strawberry Jam energy withears still steeped in a decade's worth of pop-punk and post-emo crunch. Theresult was bombastic and colorful, but it was also polished in a way that beliedthe freeform, organic nature of what they seemed to be chasing. That band wasAnnuals, and A Lull, sonic kin in a lot of ways, have gone a similar route thistime out. There are no shortage of interesting directions in which to take musiclike this. But to package it in a way that strips it of its dynamism, is a goodway to shackle it, too.