!!!/Stereolad/p. stoops

At first blush, !!!’s latest album, As If, is a hiccupy trance wrought from the past decade’s obsession with dance music. But tunes like album opener “All U Writers” are actually more stripped-down than they seem on the surface; this is dancefloor disco. From there, the album refracts that glitzy sheen across more pop rock-oriented songwriting (“Every Little Bit Counts”), 70s funk (the self-explanatory “Funk (I Got This)”) and a more contemporary indie electronic vein (“Lucy Mongoosey,” among the best tracks on this collection). It’s an album of variety, much like !!!’s fairly robust career by this point. (Sandy)