King is a guitar virtuoso whose genre of choice — indie-rock — forces her into an odd middle-ground between dexterous displays of technique and thorny evocations of self-doubt with titles like "Everything Has An End Even Sadness." Her fifth disc is her most songful, suggesting the tense alt-pop of Tegan & Sara by way of Bill Frisell and Leo Kottke. "Death Head" has real punk drive while "Falling Day" is hot goth-rock. She doesn't have a ton of vocal gravitas, and too much of the record is taken up by spirdery guitar explorations; its indicative that the soft, simple break-up lament "Sunnyside" is both the least musically showy thing here, and the most moving.

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”