Where a Menomena song sits ripe for abuse—a complicated bilge system of electronic detritus and counter-harmonies, both cathartic and sewer’d by the kind of poison that rips talented bands apart—“Holywater,” and almost every cut from Danny Seim’s upcoming charmer My Haunted, is a straight shot to the nucleus of a simple conceit. In this case it’s the brilliantly unqualified vocal line: “The downside of consuming holywater: erotica makes me want to cry,” the colon implied to the inside of Seim’s cheek, eunuchs with hummingbird wings sliding falsettos and lace in between the songwriter’s teeth. But despite all the choral snickers, Lackthereof is prim and spare, an obvious opponent to Menomena Seim, that eternally uncomfortable, hunched drummer of wrathful dexterity. Here, calmed, he finds a high-ceiling sense of space, trading immediacy and groove for careful production. Just as he physically dwarfs a rather swarthy kit on stage, with My Haunted he excels at making the small seem huge and the big seem tiny, reluctant. Subtly multitracked guitars stagger, pushed to speed up the tempo as they’re drawn back to match Seim’s cowled thrum; his simple parts are simply entangled, allowed dual purposes in under two minutes, given room to gestate but given no lease to unpack. Better to chuckle at the lyric itself and guess how serious he could be instead of determining the resolve of the dude’s faith or the taste of a few drops from a blessed faucet. Better one idea carried soothingly to its end than too many good ones arguing away the inevitable purge out the goodship’s bowels.

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