New Jersey’s Cymbals Eat Guitars have big plans in the coming months. They’re set to release their sophomore album Lenses Alien on August 30th, and will hit the ground running with a lengthy United States tour soon thereafter that includes stops in Connecticut, California, and everywhere in between.
Fans can now get their first taste of the new record, in the form of the album’s opening track “Rifle Eyesight (Proper Name),” which clocks in at nearly nine minutes. “Rifle Eyesight” lives up to its intimidating name in terms of length. That length is split up into three distinguishable movements, each of which finds the band copping a different 90s indie rock sound and slyly twisting it to suit the sound that they established on Why There Are Mountains back in 2009.

Like on that record, listeners will hear plenty of Stephen Malkmus in singer Joseph D’Agostino’s vocals on “Rifle Eyesight,” while its instrumentation is derived more from groups like Modest Mouse and Sunny Day Real Estate. There’s even a bit of incomprehensible Sonic Youth-style guitar noise going on in the middle, which separates two of the song’s movements nicely. After working with producer John Agnello, these guys clearly know how to work a studio.

If “Rifle Eyesight” is any indication of what the rest of Lenses Alien is going to be like, this new record will find the band further establishing their sound and adding enough mature flourishes to keep things interesting. Download the track for the price of an e-mail address via the widget below: