Spills Out

iTunes Review

Brooklyn is known for a wide variety of sounds emitting from its seemingly boundless community of musicians. Pterodactyl has dabbled in many of those sounds, and on the band's third full-length, Spills Out, it distills about 90 percent of au currant indie styles into one sprawling yet cohesive piece of work. The math–meets–prog angles and tempo shifts on tunes like “The Hole Night,” “Zombies,” and “School Glue” are dotted with faint pop flourishes (via vocal harmonies or ambient keyboards). The metallic art-rock vibe of tunes like “Allergy Shots” and “Thorn” are tempered with narcotic choruses and airy vocals atop shimmering drones, resulting in lysergic side effects. You don’t expect to find a hint of Beach Boys sweetness in the vocals on a song like “Searchers,” with what sounds like a gypsy caravan of guitarists in the background; nor do you expect a groove to form out of the crooked goosestep rhythm of “Hold Still.” Rather than bursting at the seams, this collection indeed spills out: slowly, in a variety of directions and colors.