Minuit - Find Me Before I Die A Lonely Death Dot Com

Rating: * * * *
Verdict: Knee-cappingly good third album from local electro pop trio.

You don't want to mess with Minuit singer Ruth Carr. She might come across all mushy and sweet with her cute lisp, but there's a viper tongue that lies in wait.

As the line in 25 Bucks attests, she has no problem with knee-capping you and then chopping you in two. Although, sometimes she's a little more implicit, with the clever and cute line "This little planet has taken a beating" on the playful Way-Ho.

This lyrical sparring also translates to the overall mood Minuit conjure up on their third album, following the unusual dancefloor quirk of 2003's debut album The 88 and the heavier and rockier The Guards Themselves from 2006. Find Me Before I Die A Lonely Death Dot Com can skip and bounce along, but there's always a deliciously dark and lethal undercurrent which is revealed best on the plucky, electronic lilt of 25 Bucks.

Then there's 10 Foot Tall, that works its way up to a big-beat dance rock song; the looming and eerie outro of Queen of the Flies is a stunningly spooky moment where Pretty Hate Machine-era Nine Inch Nails meets Massive Attack's Mezzanine; and there's even a singer/songwriter pub song in Vampires, where knob-twiddlers and beat-makers Paul Dodge and Ryan Beehre pick up their guitars.

Elsewhere the swooning sonic dreamscape of Maserati acts as a mid-album interlude along with the unashamedly parochial Aotearoa, with the mantra of "New Zealand" resonating throughout the bass-driven throb, and then it's off with a gallop again into the berserk, bounce of Yeah Yeah with the lovely chorus line "He's my beautiful boy. He's my yeah yeah".

It's an electro-pop album but rare in the fact it's made up of brilliant contrasts. It's often played out on the dancefloor, then the couch, and then in some sort of debauched play room, like on Long Live Zero with its unhinged industrial beats and chaos.

Find Me ... finds the band at their inventive best while still focused on the dancefloor and tickling the pop sensibilities of their roots.

Scott Kara