Four decades in, but Antietam still sounds interested in finding out what might happen next, and that is anything but tame. New album The Counting Game is a richly textured collection that moves towards soaring guitar-driven indie rock via psychedelic, noise pop, country, and post-punk detours and even more exploratory passages.

Tara Key takes the lead role once again, her guitar and voice capable of sounding both expansive and sharply economical, while Tim Harris (bass) and Josh Madell (drums) know when to push and when to leave room for the songs to breathe. Yet it is the surprising instruments and unexpected details that keep revealing new layers, still fitting Antietam’s identity. Take, for example, standout track Coco Bella, in which jazzy horns and a honky-tonk piano each freely do their best to seduce the swinging rhythm section, quite a ride.

The ten songs contain a few instrumentals and a few forgotten tunes from long ago, but actually it doesn’t matter that much what the band picks up. It is always adventurous without becoming self-indulgent, melodic without playing it safe.

The Counting Game—produced by Tara Key and Tim Harris, with Steve Silverstein—is out digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Dromedary Records.

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