Equal Idiots (Clear LP)

Forget everything you think you know about Equal Idiots. Their new self-titled album has so much more layering than the Kempen clay soil from which the band was born.

With producer Stijn Vanhoegaarden (Brutus) at the controls, Thibault Christiaensen (31) and Pieter Bruurs (31) have made not only the best but also the most versatile album of their career. The dynamite of Eagle Castle BBQ and Adolescence Blues Community is cleverly exchanged for dynamism on this third release. When bands give a record the same title as their group name, it is often a statement. Again: This Is Who We Are, Christiaensen and Bruurs put it first. The garage rock train was at the terminus, the new destination the band wants out of looks nicer. Mature is perhaps a somewhat hollow term, but for both young thirty-somethings, this is the album par excellence that they wanted to make for themselves. "If we were to speak in Taylor Swift terms, this would be a new era," laughs Thibault.