The Eagle & the Poodle

Following the exceptional Sitting on Snaps album, Mecca Normal delivered an album more notably experimental, heading in the direction of their concurrent side project, 2 Foot Flame. The Canadian post-punk duo refined such a distinctive aesthetic over the course of some ten albums, and with the curiously titled The Eagle & the Poodle they break from their charging minimalist sound and adopt a more angular, improvisational approach. The closing track, "When You Know," is one of Jean Smith's more poetic career highlights and David Lester exhibits some of his finest abstract guitar playing on "Breathing in the Dark," "Cave In," and "When You Build a House Without Doors."