Follow-up to the 2021 sophomore album, ‘Cooler Returns’, about which Pitchfork said: “Sardonic storytelling and mocking asides… an impatient, slacker-rock imagining of a folk album… some chords ring out with George Harrison glossiness while others are as shaggy and impetuous as The Clean – rarely do hi-fi and lo-fi splendors coexist so harmoniously.”

Smash cut to Kiwi Jr.’s third album, ‘Chopper’, overseen by trusted pilot Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) on Sub Pop. Turning nocturnal with necks mock turtle, our Local Kiwi Jr. take neon flight off the digital cliff – like The Monkees starring in ‘Blade Runner’; like Michael Mann directs ‘Encino Man’.

This album is decidedly (yet almost secretly) anti-patio- sunscreen-Beach Boys bachelor cruise sing-a-long. Sure, these songs let a little light through the blinds, but they sting insomnia, corrupt mayors, sex tapes and deer rifles. ‘Chopper’ is the bird’s eye view of the big event – a real night time character of oil stain, film grain, search light, night flight. It is muscular and fragile; loud yet quiet: both an observer and somehow the observed spectacle itself.

With Boeckner transmitting high-voltage shocks upon every reach for a familiar instrument, Kiwi Jr. expand the palette with string machine song, synthesizered oblong, and Dentyne Classic Menthol vocals from area soprano Dorothea Paas (US Girls, Badge Epoch Ensemble), like the missing piece all along.

Available to independent retailers on Loser Edition clear vinyl.