Album Review: Run by AWOLNATION

2011's "Sail," a thick blast of paranoid, midtempo, industrial-tinged electro-pop, was the centerpiece of Awolnation's platinum-selling debut, and its fevered Trent Reznor-isms and heavily barbed hooks (and very 21st century refrain of "Blame it on my ADD") lent themselves well to late-night TV dramas and intense sporting montages. Run, the Aaron Bruno-led outfit's sophomore outing, doubles down on the attention deficit with a dizzying 14-track set that channels everyone from Muse to the Beach Boys, offering up a grab bag filled with huge arena choruses, bucolic harmonies, and meaty dance beats. Bruno comes out of the gate coiled and ready to strike with the unnerving title cut, which introduces a sleek, orchestral, minor-key loop and a mantra of "I am a human being, capable of doing terrible things" before exploding into a full-on NIN-style hissy fit (had it arrived a year earlier, it would have made an ace stand-in for the Eels' "Fresh Blood," which adorns the opening credits sequence of HBO's true crime Robert Durst documentary The Jinx).

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L.A.'s Awolnation broke out with their 2011 hit "Sail," a dark and stormy electro-rock power ballad on which singer Aaron Bruno succeeded in sliding the phrase "blame it on my ADD" into the pop consciousness. His ADD is still cooking on the band's latest album: Bruno is a studio impressionist whose songs flip from Cali-pop whimsy to lumpy dance rock to shout-y arena bombast as he drops chest-thumping lines like "I stand alone and curse at the sky." At their best, songs like "Dreamers" and "Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)" hint at something approaching the Queen of EDM — a terrifyingly ambitious idea that even someone more talented than Bruno would have a tough time pulling off. .

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