Adult.‘s Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller reverted to being a duo with last year’s departure of Samuel Consiglio, a change that’s evident in their fourth longplayer Why Bother? It’s not that we ever had anything against Consiglio, or 2005’s Gimmie Trouble. But the band’s latest effort feels, as a whole, like a more cohesive unit of work, and emblematic of the duo’s quirky personalities.

Kuperus’s trademark vocals–which consist of half singing and half chanting indecipherable lyrics–remain prominent here, and are accompanied by plenty of minor chords, ominous basslines, and marauding organ interludes that are just plain bizarre. In short, this is deliciously gloomy doom-folk for the dark at heart.

Why Bother? is out March 2007 on Thrill Jockey.