Excavating the bleakest tales of humanity with an uncomfortable veracity, Xiu Xiu's sometimes-hysterical lyrics have more in common with performance artist Karen Finley than most supposedly emo bands of today. (Can you imagine, say, Dashboard Confessional moaning the line, "I hate my husband/ I hate my children/ I'm going to hang myself"?) Led by dramatic confessionalist Jamie Stewart, who claims that all the stories in his lyrics are entirely true, Xiu Xiu superimpose depressive-verité over the clang-clang of gamelan and understated house beats, influenced both by 20th century piano composer Henry Cowell's atonality and the thump of the dance scene in their then-home of San Jose. This makes for sometimes difficult, surrealist tracks (like "Anne Dong"), but Stewart's love of Joy Division/New Order results in some dark poppy melodies, too (as on the superb, elastic house track "Over Over").