Iran: Dissolver

It’s been six years since Iran dropped the sweet bedroom noise of The Moon Boys, and since then, primary songwriter and vocalist Aaron Aites moved from San Francisco to Brooklyn, where guitarist Kyp Malone later linked up with TV On The Radio. And while it isn’t really fair to call Iran a side project, the TVOTR influence is palpable. Aites recently described the sounds on Dissolver as “hi-fi,” an apt descriptor considering the Dave Sitek-assisted leaps they’ve made sonically. No longer hiding melodies behind so many drapes of hiss and scramble, Aites has opened things up. The songs feel roomier, the tones brighter, the dynamics more jarring. It’s a shift toward straight-up guitar rock that could be likened to that of Pavement, a band whose later, less abrasive meanderings cast audible shadows across “Baby, Let’s Get High One Last Time Together” and “Evil Summer.” Same goes for the shambling rundowns: “Buddy” drifts along on frothy doo-wop before plunging into a beautiful mess of guitar, the final three-minute unraveling of “Can I Feel What” its only equal in shimmer.