“Blank Curtain” might be the song I’ve listened to most this year, and it’s only been out for a month and a half. Cola is a new project from ex-Ought members Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy, who have teamed up with drummer Evan Cartwright from US Girls. I always enjoyed songs from Ought, though I can’t say I ever got wholly into their music—but this is another thing altogether. Some folks have compared “Blank Curtain” to Women’s music, and that’s definitely there: Darcy’s dead-eyed vocals especially bring to mind some of Pat Flegel’s more aloof performances on Women songs. But I think what I found most appealing right off the bat is something else, the post-punk sense of taking a handful of simple, utilitarian components and from them building a weird and striking song. Even after the first listen, I was entranced. Darcy’s guitar sets the trajectory for the song, a series of pulled-off, delayed notes, an odd machine whirring to life, augmented by Stidworthy’s driving bass and marching percussion from Cartwright. Darcy asks questions that bring to mind something like an object-focused version of existentialism: “Is there a notion to explain the mirror to the wall?” and “And the blank curtain/what’s on the other side/of the blinding solar/I’ll take it as it rides.” This song is addictive in a way that’s difficult to explain—the progress of it, the way it seems to expand through the bridge and contract again, it’s all mesmerizing.