Repair

Water Damage were always destined to be veterans. Its members are veterans of a daunting roll call of groups, and this particular juggernaut was born to deliver a solid-to-the-core set of dispatches. The four performances that make up Repair rank among their best.

The m.o. of listing track titles as “Reel 45,” “Reel 38,” and so on now reads as a clear-sighted, long-game approach, sidestepping the distraction of programmatic titles. They’ll tell us the order in which they were laid down, but what else do you need to know in advance?

Repair features an even ten players plus simpatico pals Wendy Eisenberg and Ricardo Dias Gomes. “Reel 45” charges out with a frenetic beating of the traps and Mari Maurice’s Shepard tone-ish climb; “Reel 38” is boppy garage rock; “Reel 43” tips its hat to the Stooges’ “Loose”; “Reel 41” refocuses to a kind of Water Damage golden mean. David Grubbs