Buy Our Intention; We'll Buy You a Unicorn

Kaddisfly issued two self-released EPs and one LP before they signed with Hopeless Records and turned out this nicely crafted and beautifully produced album. Buy Our Intention; We'll Buy You a Unicorn doesn't do itself any favors by sporting one of the more pretentious album titles of the year, and song titles like "Eres Tremulent" and "For the Ejection of Rest; They'll Dance" don't do much to ease the misgivings that any sensible person will have when looking over the package. But the music is a pleasant surprise -- emotional without being too bombastic, guitar-heavy and aggressive without ever quite tipping over into punkiness, Kaddisfly's sound will probably be categorized by the lazy as emo, but there's quite a bit more to it than that. "For the Ejection of Rest" flirts with dub, while "Osmosis in C" is unapologetically jazzy; other tracks contain strong hints of a math rock inclination amongst the guitarists. The album's final number, a ten-and-a-half-minute long epic titled "Horses Galloping on Sailboats," feels like self-indulgent filler, but everything else succeeds at being simultaneously fun, smart and interesting.