Well, I don’t like Galaxie 500. Still, This is Our Music has its moments—the biggest by far being “Fourth of July,” a contender for their best song. It sounds like they really care for once, and I never thought Galaxie 500 were particularly good at not caring, so this is an improvement.

In general, there’s just as much laze in This Is Our Music, but a lot less haze. The extended instrumental sections are bizarre, with some proactive guitar virtuosity that betrays the band’s personality, as if they suddenly have something to prove. On the other hand, it makes them dynamic. Meh, I’ll take it. I’m not sure what happened, but Dean Wareham’s vocals suddenly got a lot more tolerable as well. Guess he got over his repressed country star fantasies.

Galaxie 500 picked the right time to end their career. Not long after, Yo La Tengo would take their daydreaming, slowcore shtick and do a substantially better job at it.