And Their Refinement of the Decline cover

And Their Refinement of the Decline

Released

The final album by the ambient duo Stars of the Lid was also a quietly triumphant mission statement in ways, claiming back what was already become a cliched post-rock tag to implicitly argue for something that really was well beyond rock in any form. Their crabby sense of humor well intact — the final song, for instance, was called “December Hunting for Vegetarian Fuckface” — did not obscure the boundless and seemingly bottomless flow of their exquisite layering of drones and treated instruments.

Ned Raggett

Recommended by

Suggestions
Hotel Neon cover

Hotel Neon

Hotel Neon
Bay of Rainbows cover

Bay of Rainbows

Jakob Bro, Joey Baron, Thomas Morgan
No Beginning No End cover

No Beginning No End

Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner
Tempus cover

Tempus

Hualun
Never Stop cover

Never Stop

The Bad Plus
Remnants of a Deeper Purity cover

Remnants of a Deeper Purity

Black Tape for a Blue Girl
Universe I've Got cover

Universe I've Got

Primordial Undermind
Balsams cover

Balsams

Chuck Johnson
Descension (Out of Our Constrictions) cover

Descension (Out of Our Constrictions)

Evan Parker, Natural Information Society
Samsara (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) cover

Samsara (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard, Marcello De Francisci