Written in the wake of a number of deaths and suicides of close friends, Sorority Noise’s second record is both a sad and graphic reflection of an extremely testing and painful time for the Connecticut band. The verses of ‘No Halo’, the brutally honest opening track of second album ‘You’re Not As _______ As You Think’, are deceiving in the way they evoke the steady vibes of an Interpol or National song, but with a chorus that bursts with vital urgency it soon explodes into something far more stirring and ferocious.

Weightily melodic and lyrically challenging, ‘No Halo’s strength somehow owes to both its directness and its ability to deceive. A song that doesn’t so much lead the way into the album as much as it smashes open the door to a complex, artfully somber collection of sincere tracks written with explicit emotion.