“This is Lamps’ third album and since the last one was called Lamps Lamps, they missed a hell of a chance to call this one Lamps Lamps Lamps. But they’d like to call it Under the Water Under the Ground, which implies a depth unimaginable by anyone but ‘scientists.’ Do they get there? You bet.
“A look at the structural components of a rock trio reveals some hidden logic, resolved by concepts related to physics: if you plot three points (one per band member, if you want), and put the musical concepts of power, precision and melody into each of those slots, and you move the point where melody exists closer to the axis on which the other two points reside, you get something resembling an icepick. It’s still a triangle, but it’s long and wide, and its bottom angles are like knives. If they lived anywhere but Los Angeles (or Austin, or the nowhere in between) they might need a device that employs angles much like those to scrape the ice off their car windshields, or as a shiv.
“There are some catchy hooks here—some of the catchiest Lamps have written to date, and vastly improved by an industrial strength recording by Chris Woodhouse—but they compress that element of their sound into a dynamic that favors power and precision as its most acute points, amplified / distorted / corroded to the point where it only knows how to hurt. The rhythm section is straight-up gorilla goon shit, muscular surf beats by Josh Erkman and a leveling counterpoint on bass by Thee Jimmy Hole. And Mr. Montgomery Buckles’s formidable arsenal of effects strangle his guitar blue. Every song’s a winner, the sight and sound of some crowd surfer hitting the floor, one more punisher out of the frame.”
—Doug Mosurock

In The Red