Rating: 3/5 stars

American experimental band The Housewives (“Might As Well”) usually refrain from going too out-there in their releases. The band, composed of vocalist Bernadette Jones and instrumentalist Tyler Pearson, have kept a majorly low profile in the indie scene while cultivating synth-pop bangers that would feel as appropriate on the Billboard Hot 100 as they do in the grungy club scenes they scavenge. Their new album, “Kummer Chameleon,” released on Nov. 3, shows the band delving deeper into noisy avenues and post-punk-inspired aesthetics.

The centerpiece of the album is the raging track “Operation Moon,” a proggy foray into rapid detours and wobbly atmospheres. For 12 minutes, the band draws together influences from MGMT (“Mother Nature”) and the Flaming Lips (“American Head”) with a punk sensibility straight out of early Pere Ubu (“Trouble on Big Beat Street”). Jones’ lyrics of both woe and whimsy culminate into a song both thematically dark and comically lighthearted. She sings, “The ambulance tolls its sullen bell/Around, around the curb/Oh swell!” The poetic lyrics sound straight out of a Monty Python sketch written by Dr. Seuss.

The band evoked the liveliness of their concerts across the album, particularly on “Might As Well.” The track is a rework of their previous song “Might As Well Not”; the reversal of the title aptly predicts the new direction of the song, from a slow synthy ballad to a loud rupture of grungy alt-rock and industrial-esque electronics. The fun vibes of “Operation Moon” eclipse into growly aggression on “Might As Well,” though the ending of the song hints at a return with a distorted sample of a vintage ‘70s track. The lyrics tell a tale of self-awareness: “It was as if an occult hand had grabbed my own hand/I scribbled some drivel and started a band.”

Jones and Pearson, as avant-garde as the duo get, are not stray to gimmicks. Part of the band’s punk ethos includes extensive gatekeeping of their releases, going as far as to announce the music video for “Might As Well” being available for a few days. The video featured a psychedelic smorgasbord of deep-fried visuals, mostly taken from a day shopping for clothes and groceries. The video immediately prompted fans to archive them, but so far no trace has stayed up on YouTube for long.

While the first half of the album features banger after banger, the second half resonates as a lull. “Blair Project” promises an interesting concept with a spoken-word portion, but the song does not really go anywhere after a lengthy, thumping drone. “Backbone Bumper,” a short vaguely jazzy interlude, also promises an intriguing buildup while not actually delivering much. While these songs may merely require several listens, on first try they feel a tad weak.

The band’s obscurity, even within the Bandcamp environment they subsist in, does not prevent them from sculpting a new, modern masterpiece. In and of themselves, the Housewives have really come into their own.

Image from The Housewives via Bandcamp.com