It’s called I’m Going Away, but the conceptually minded Eleanor and Matthew and Friedberger clearly aren’t going anywhere: This is their eighth full-length since 2003. Mixing things up a bit, the 12-song collection was recorded and mixed by Sebadoh’s Jason Loewenstein, who also played bass on it. According to the label I’m Going Away‘s “an album of 70′s sunshine-glazed piano pop, filled with cascading note slides, head-nodding grooves.” According to Matt and Eleanor, of course, it’s a bit more. You can read their analysis while you study the artwork. The undramatic, even bland cover imagery’s indeed more straightforward than the siblings’ words; after you read their Taxi vs. Titanic theories, though, you’ll realize that’s sort of the point.

The two cents:

All rock music is a sort of dramatic music. And since the times are tough, it makes sense to have that “drama” be something more like a version of Taxi than something like a version of Titanic. We like Taxi better than Titanic anyway. So we hope that some of the songs on this record can be used as theme songs to folk’s own personal versions of Taxi. Because — ideally — the dramatic setting of the music isn’t provided by the story or image of the given act or band. It’s provided by the lives of the people who use — listen to — the music. That’s all kinds of pop music’s promise and problem, or danger. So be careful and don’t get canceled.

The tracklist:

01 “I’m Going Away”
02 “Drive to Dallas”
03 “The End is Near”
04 “Charmaine Champagne”
05 “Cut the Cake”
06 “Even in the Rain”
07 “Staring at the Steeple”
08 “Ray Bouvier”
09 “Keep Me in the Dark”
10 “Lost At Sea”
11 “Cups and Punches”
12 “Take Me Round Again”

I’m Going Away is out 7/21 via Thrill Jockey.