Warpaint

“Undertow”
from the album The Fool
2010
iTunes

The music of L.A. quartet Warpaint is a little fractured, a little unfocused. “Undertow,” the first single from the band’s ridiculously anticipated debut album, The Fool, echoes PJ Harvey and Kate Bush, its blurry harmonies intersecting with ferocious guitar breakdowns for a song both gritty and evocative. It is, in other words, the opposite of disappointing, and a fine fit in 2010’s lineup of dreamy but deadly female-fronted bands (Twin Sister, Beach House, Memoryhouse, Puro Instinct, the list goes on). For a group that’s built a reputation around town and elsewhere (they’re joining Mercury Prize winners The xx on tour in the coming weeks) through their charismatic performances, it seems the studio suits them well. The Fool is due via Rough Trade Records on October 25.