Memory is to Preoccupations’ self-titled album as Death was to Viet Cong’s self-titled album. It’s the mega-song, the big statement, the protean centerpiece. It starts with a stutter and lurches into a pseudo-groove, then the song opens up and Matt Flegel’s voice (which sounds uncannily like Jeremy Irons’s voice, at least to my ears) enters. In the chorus, he sings: “You don’t have to say sorry/For all the things you failed to do/You don’t have to say sorry/For all the times when everything fell through.” The song feels at first like a dour sort of eulogy, a cry of grief, but then it shifts and the middle section of the song lifts off. The music speeds up, the rhythm changes, a skipping guitar riff pulls everything upwards, then Dan Boeckner starts singing, and it’s like a perfect 80s British post-punk song has been placed in the middle of Memory as an interlude. Flegel comes back in to join Boeckner for the last anguished bit, “Erasing/Your memory,” until the song degrades into a long, pulsing drone for its final four minutes.Preoccupations, the album, has a sustained mood over most of its tracks—it’s agitation, ennui, and being unwell. And Memory is so effective because it offers a respite from that feeling of unease, a calm breath, a moment of actual tranquility. Preoccupations, like Cymbals Eat Guitars’ Pretty Years, is an impressive work and one of the most remarkable albums of the year. Super focused and intense. Not easy listening, but rewarding listening.[BUY Preoccupations]