Rock criticism seems divided between those content with artists who find their voice immediately, and those who believe that people at the top of their game must remain forever restless. With Ben Barnett's Kind of like Spitting, I was more than content to place the band among those who instantly knew the precise shadow of the moon from which to weave their spell. While they've habitually improved upon each previous song, making the music fuller or the lyrics more honest, the now-well-known ache in a KOLS song was immediately present the first time they shuffled and kicked out a hummable tune. Here, as KOLS Performs: Old Moon in the Arms of the New, they react to the departure of violinist Mollie Hardy by throwing out their potent, successful "emo-ballad" formula in favor of riding their often intense feelings through every genre known to Dion DiMucci -- that is, everything but techno.

"Old Moon Meets the New", the opener, starts out on familiar mid-tempo Braid turf, with Ben wondering "how deep" to "look into things". Before you can say "even deeper than his wounds might go", Jeff London enters the song, introducing some mad farfisa organ that sends the song on a detour toward Frankie Ford ("Sea Cruise") territory. Ben ends the song, singing "You shouldn't have to get used to it", and he's right: first contact with the "new moon" is a direct-to-the-vein success.

The next song, "Boy Cries Wolf", is the most surprising of the new KOLS material; it recalls Momus' "Marquis of Sadness", and features vocal interjections by a very twee Rachel Blumberg, as well as this wonderful line: "Sorry to say you're just in time when comedy escapes me". As he does again in a later song "On the subject of her new gold star" ("Right where you belong, not in these creepy songs with me"), Ben appears to be having fun with the brooding persona for which he's famous, and helps to illustrate another reason why this adventurous new record is also KOLS' best.

On Old Moon, you just get a sense that these fellas are having fun. When they merge Tonight's the Night-era Neil Young with White Light Velvet Underground, or run through beautifully fragile acoustic numbers ("43 C"; "Dostoyevsky Gets Mugged Outside a Donut Shop in New Jersey"; "On the Subject"), you'll find yourself feeling extremely good about this sad, affecting material. We are witnessing a great band upping their own ante, and winning again and again. Old Moon in the Arms of the New might mark a "new beginning" for a band few ever thought would need one, but I'll remember it as one of the grandest 32 minutes of pleasure a music fan can imagine. May new moons be seen again, and may these broken hearts keep howling.