There is a sensation in Women’s second album, Public Strain, like there is something lurking beneath the surface. Beneath the noise and strained guitars, there lies a melody or purpose that shoves the music forward with the thick treacle of production acting as not just an affectation, but as a limiter of the songs which have been meticulously crafted by the Canadian four-piece.

Each song sounds like some weird, combined kind of languid heroin high as might have been produced by some 1960s band operating in the orbit of acts like Velvet Underground, whose drugs of choice were opiates, as opposed to psychedelic and modern shoegaze-worshiping bedroom projects. The album is detached to a detriment, like listening to music being played next door. The band keeps its distance from the listener; which is unfortunate, because the breathy delivery of the vocalist makes you wish you were beside him and able to see the beauty in the decay around you.

Public Strain opens weakly. “Can’t You See”, “Heat Distraction” and “Narrow With The Hall” are no match for the latter half of the album. “Can’t You see” gives you a bass line and a plaintive chorus which cries “can’t you see” like a spurned lover with an overabundance of production that produces a bed of noise that coats the song like an oppressive fog, diminishing the listener’s visibility. “Heat Distraction” starts off a bit better, mutating, perhaps even evolving as the song continues, yet whatever distraction the song provides is not present when “Narrow With The Hall” immediately makes you recall the opening track’s familiar noise and distance.

“Penal Colony” and “Bells” are where the depth of the album really begins to manifest. Soft but not demure, the distance is accentuated with calm melodic guitars given a near choral quality whose verdant blanket of guitar carries over to the whole of “Bells”, making these two tracks everything which the first three are not. Here, the arrangements are endearing and lull you to a near dreamlike state of comfort and security.

“China Steps” leads off the second side of the album and it is probably the strongest single song on the album, as guitars and bass bounce back and forth from one another complimenting and antagonizing each other’s parts.

It’s here on the second side where the instrumentation really shines as the band opens up, moving away from the dead-voiced goth-gaze vocalizations as the album gains speed and energy, as much amphetamine-fueled and paranoia-filled as opposed to the previous side’s codeine, vodka mixers which slowed your heart to a stop.

Public Strain is a good album whose unfortunate tendencies at the start prevent it from escaping a nebulous sort of rating. It’s somewhat unique in that it doesn’t sound like other similar purveyors working in similar genres. Women’s ability to mix moods and themes as well as the antonymic, baroque and bare hopefully spells a long future for them as a band.