Indiana’s Perfect Angel At Heaven (a name taken from a joke riffing on dating app profiles) are a surprisingly beautifully mixed cocktail, bringing generations past to the present age. A cocktail you could call, Flirt With The Fire. Soaring vocals, akin to Bowie or Swan’s Michael Gira, but the guitars of, say, Sonic Youth. In their four song, debut EP, simply called EP, they offer an 80’s reminiscent, post rock combination of adventurous guitars and evocative vocals. “Don’t say anything to me / There is nothing except for / Living like I love my life.”

They clearly feel the ache for connection and that ache expresses itself in cathartic indie alternative rock, that takes from the greats but is all their own. (The EP is only four tracks, but they are songs that you will want to put on repeat.) “Every man I’ve met needs a mother / But my body can’t deliver,” Casey Noonan sings on the second song, “Tunnel Vision.” There is, throughout, a sensitivity to the issues of the day, (gender identity, capitalistic conditions, depression and anxiety,) but they twist the issues to fight, in song form, for a world they hope to see, instead of falling into despair.

“I went home without the pain of being first,” they sing on the final track, “Miami.” There is a humility about the group, seasoned by wisdom. The sense, like on the same song, that we are each “a sinkhole on the coast / a canal flowing downtown,” good and bad, blessing and curse, bundled up in one complicated suit of skin.

It’s a short offering, perhaps belying their desire not to overstay their welcome, but it’s a satisfying introduction. Noonan’s vocals are certainly the highlight of the outfit, though the guitars (including a wonderful bass showing by Alex Grove) rise to the occasion. If you’re looking for music with a brilliant bite, that builds on the rock greats of the past, this album might be for you. “Punks for hire / with damage to burn / Carry the water, build the fire / It’s our turn to learn what this means.”

Order Perfect Angel At Heaven by Perfect Angel At Heaven HERE