If there’s a word to describe Preoccupations’s music, it’s ‘panicked’. It’s the sound of your reality collapsing while you scramble to pick up the pieces of what’s left. This is what made me fall in love with the band over a decade ago. Melding sounds of This Heat, The Cure, and many other post-punk staples, they have mastered a sound that Lindsay Zoladz of Pitchfork perfectly described as “labyrinthine post-punk”.

Following up a somewhat disappointing third album, the four-piece post-punk outfit have bounced back with a competent return to form in “Arrangements.” Honing in on 80’s goth punk and 90’s noise rock sensibilities, they have split the difference between glossy, synth-based production of New Material as well as and the raw and uncontrolled energy of Viet Cong.

The album opener “Fix Bayonets!” sets the tone excellently for the rest of the album. To quote lead vocalist and bassist Matt Flegel, “It’s basically about the world blowing up and no one giving a s***.” Every track is flooded with imagery of impending doom, the collapse of society, and the overwhelming feeling of trying to make sense of your demise. While it makes for a haunting atmosphere, the lyrical content is unfortunately the weakest part of the project. You’ll remember a lyric or two, but most of it goes in through one ear and out the other.

However, if you’re listening to Preoccupations, you’re not here for lyrics. You’re here for the instrumentation. Each song embarks into a musical landscape that no other band in post-punk reaches. Mike Wallace’s drumming here is easily the best of his career, moving each song forward like a violent heartbeat. The riffs and melodies, while less jagged than their previous works, are infectious enough to worm their way into your head. Reverb and synth effects flood in to create a fog-like wall of sound. Everything melds together to make a style of post-punk that leans more towards Sonic Youth than it does Bauhaus.

My favorite track on the project is “Advisor”. After the desolation that is “Slowly”, it’s a slow-building trek. The cacophony as the beautiful strings meld with the vocals and bellowing synths makes for an overwhelming yet blissful transition into a steady, Joy Division-esque groove. “Advisor” serves as a perfect tipping point as the listener descends into the madness that is the second half of the album.

Another stand out track is the closer, “Tearing up the grass”. A steady march, it trades in the panic and confusion I grew used to for confidence and steadfastness. While that fear and hopelessness is still present, it’s a walk right into the face of demise rather than cowering and waiting for it to take you. It makes for a fitting ending to the listening experience.

While this album is not hitting the emotional tens that I loved from their earlier output, this is the best thing Preoccupations has released in years. We are trading in the rugged, palpitating instrumentation of a man mid breakdown for a more muted sonic palette, as if the beast that fueled the songwriting was tamed. “Arrangements” is not the album I would have asked for, but it is one that I am more than happy with receiving. If you are a fan of dark, brooding, and foreboding punk, it’s a short and intense listen that will not disappoint.