Cymbals Eat Guitars released their debut album Why There Are Mountains in 2009, receiving a response that far exceeded the band's expectations. Two years have gone by since that early hype cycle began, and a lot has changed. An official release of Why There Are Mountains on the band's own imprint, extensive US touring with the likes of Bear in Heaven, Los Campesinos!, and The Thermals; European dates with The Flaming Lips and The Hold Steady; and festival performances including Lollapalooza and Glastonbury kept the band quite busy. All the while, they were using whatever free time was afforded to them to write songs for a planned follow-up.
After signing to Barsuk Records in early 2011, the band settled down in Whipple's basement in New Jersey to finish writing that follow-up. Lenses alien, the result of these collaborative explorations, is a stunning example of a band growing into itself — learning to collaborate, becoming more confident. At its core, Lenses Alien is a marriage of classic pop forms and ambient haze that makes for a stark, dusky psychedelia. D'Agostino's vocals, now with support from Hamilton and Whipple, sit daringly at the forefront, and his lyrics are dark, strange, and affecting as ever. A relentlessly complex listen, Lenses Alien strikes a balance between the archaic and the inviting and is as much a document of doubts and contradictions as of irreverent joy. It's a varied collection of songs that feels handmade — built from the ground up — and it's precisely the album Cymbals Eat Guitars was built to make.

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