Bent

Bent is a concept record about the modern workplace, and 4Castle treat it the way a good novelist treats a villain: with enough patience to let the rot show itself. “Mr. McKay” opens in storyteller mode, a B-minor character study of a venture capitalist that sets the tone and the trick the whole album runs on, melodies warm enough to make the satire sting. From there the band works almost entirely in a tender register, which is the daring choice here: songs like “Vision & Values” and “Stock Price Jesus” gut corporate doublespeak while the harmonies stay gorgeous and sincere, never winking. The risk is that thirteen tracks at the same emotional temperature can blur, and a couple of the colder, more deliberate cuts, “Authenticity Factory” in particular, feel more like exercises in the concept than fully realized songs. “Nightmares Return” closes on a quieter, riskier note that lands more as a fade than a finish, but the writing across the middle stretch, especially “All Change Is Painful” and “Human Capital,” is the sharpest this band has put to tape. A confident, cohesive record that holds together on the strength of its idea and its execution.