Our guy Richard goes absolutely mad here, and Drukqs contains a legitimate hit, “Avril 14th,” a beatless, almost cloying piano ditty that could have been a sitcom theme in the 70s. This double-CD goes all over the place, and I think almost everything James has tried gets a spin here, though the prepared piano stuff is new to the toolkit. It’s a touch more subdued than the two previous albums, though not much. Also, it was the last album before a ten year (ish) year pause! What was that about. There is a real sense of injection and concentration, everything in his arsenal laid out before him before reconsidering all of it.

– Sasha Frere-Jones