In case you thought you might be in for something of an upbeat barn-burner of a record, the latest Garbage album starts with a three minute quiet gloomy piece called “Sometimes,” after which you get the big pop single, “Empty.”

Strange Little Birds is the work of a band who sound like they just want to do whatever it is they do, and they feel no particular need to cajole listeners into liking it. (Barring the required “hit single” attempt, that is.) The album’s kind of grim, and there’s almost a prog-rock quality in places. Two of my favorite songs are “Blackout,” which is six and a half minutes of the most compelling music they’ve ever made, and “So We Can Stay Alive,” another marvelous six minute piece toward the end of the record. They’re both kind of dark but in an energetic and compelling way.

Garbage, in a larger-than-normal nutshell, I suppose.

Now, you can say that I’m predisposed toward longer experimental rock pieces due to all that Genesis and Pink Floyd and such in my upbringing. And you’d be right! What I’m saying is, the band managed to tap into some of that vibe without ever sounding like anything but themselves. It’s amazing and I love it.

It’s not all glaring sunshine and thorn-guarded roses, however. “If I Lost You” is a dreary sappy weepy four minutes of exactly what you’d expect from a song titled “If I Lost You.” While “Even Though Our Love Is Doomed” is a prettily-made track, I just bounced off of it completely. It’s not for me, perhaps.

Let’s be clear: If Shirley Manson’s vocal stylings and the band’s brand of social-commentary lyrical content have put you off of Garbage in the past, nothing about Strange Little Birds is going to bring you back. Hell, this album doubles down on all of that even more than did Bleed Like Me, the last of their albums to really pull me in.

So, should you buy Strange Little Birds? If you’ve ever been a Garbage fan, absolutely do it (if you haven’t already). If you were turned off from the band years ago, I doubt anything here is going to change your mind. If somehow you’ve never heard more of their stuff other than “Push It” and “Only Happy When It Rains,” and you’re wondering if this would be a good album to start with… yeah, do it. I recommend this album.

(Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go queue up “Blackout” and “So We Can Stay Alive” again. Damn, I love those songs.)

The guys with the breakout hit a couple years back, the ones with the heavy drums and frequent accordion, have returned with a second album release. How does Egomaniac stand up to what Kongos have done before?

Well, the lead single, “Take It From Me,” isn’t as deeply catchy as “Come With Me Now.” That’s not to say it’s bad. I enjoy the heck out of it! I’m just not compelled to listen to it on repeat like I was with their first big single. Maybe I’m growing up, finally?

Nah. That can’t be it.

This is a band that sounds, to my ears lacking in ability to deeply parse lyrical content, like a group of brainy hippies with stupendous rhythm and a lot of ideas. It’s hard for me to tell how much is serious and how much tongue-in-cheek. Take “Autocorrect,” found partway into the album. (By the way, do not listen to that song at work. Lotsa cussin’, folks.) The general idea is that of living a kind of Matrix-like existence, downloading entertainment right into your skull, with the bonus ability to Ctrl-Z your mistakes. It’s a weird concept and a modern anthem and quite a toe-tapper and unconcerned with offending delicate sensibilities. Kongos, ladies and gentlemen, summed up in one tune.

Or how about “Birds Do It,” a very weird take on a pick-up line. It features one of the strongest accordion solos heard in a modern rock song, and that’s not the weirdest thing about the track, at least if you try to pay attention to the lyrical thread.

So on the one hand, Kongos have a sound and a style which if you heard “Come With Me Now” on the radio a few dozen times you’re plenty familiar with. On the other hand, on Egomaniac it sounds like the band is trying to figure out what that sound really means and where they’re going to go with it. Is it a “sophomore slump” record? I don’t find as many of the individual tracks quite as strong as I did on Lunatic, but this album is a bit more varied. The first album was mostly an exercise in establishing the band’s style and really getting it out there in front of people, and a side-effect of that is that many of its songs are quite similar. Great, but similar. This time it feels like they’re looking to work out the kinks as well as test their versatility without getting completely off course.

As a second outing, I recommend Egomaniac. There are some truly standout songs, such as “The World Would Run Better” and “I Don’t Mind,” plus the aforementioned “Autocorrect” and “Take It From Me.” No track clocks past the four minute mark so no single idea runs the risk of wearing out its welcome. Give it a spin, see what you think.

(NOTE: Later in the day, I discovered that Egomaniac is actually Kongos’ third album. I’m not alone in having made this mistake, but it bears correcting nonetheless.)

To enjoy Caravan Palace, you need first be able to enjoy a genre called “electroswing,” which is basically old-timey swing-era jazz songs smushed together with electronic sounds & modern production values. It’s not my tip-top favorite sound, but sometimes it suits my mood for a while.

To enjoy Caravan Palace’s third album, the one with the unfortunate name, you not only need to enjoy electroswing but also enjoy hip-hop stylings, because that’s what gets thrown into the mix for nearly all of the tracks on the record. I give the band credit: Trying to make another album just like either of the last two would’ve been a mistake, so points to them for striding confidently in a new direction.

The results are… hit-or-miss. I’m not big on hip-hop so it turns out I’m not a good judge of what you should like on the record. I just know that past the first track, “Lone Digger,” I found the rest of the album’s pieces landing somewhere between “decent background music” and “no, no, next track right now please.” If hip-hop production values aren’t your thing either, I’d say you should buy the lead track on its own and skip the rest of the album. Save a few dollars.