At 20 tracks and almost twice the length of any of their previous releases, The Runners Four, which just happens to be Deerhoof's eighth (!) studio album in as many years sees these bay area Noise-Rockers moving into new poppy driven and surprisingly accessible territory. Lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki has always had this precious innocence to her vocal delivery. Now that band mates Chris Cohen and Greg Saunier have slowed the tempos of spastic rambunctious-ness down a notch, Matsuzaki's Yoko Ono meets elementary school girl style is now right out front of over half of this album.

That's not to say that Deerhoof doesn't get their noisy jollies off in spurts here. In all actuality, and for the most part, The Runners Four seems to be split in two halves; the first half being the more melodic and the second half leaning more towards that grittier, older Deerhoof sound. The Runners Four may also just be Deerhoof's most musically accomplished album to date as. It really is awesome to listen to tracks like "Running Thoughts" and "Spirit Ditties Of No Tone" and see how much this band has grown. But it still is wonderful to hear comfort blankets like "Midnight Bicycle Mystery" and fantastic album closer "Rrrrrrrright" sprinkled with Deerhoof's manic trademark of craziness. Deerhoof certainly is not for everyone, but if there was ever an album of theirs for beginners to start with, this is definitely it.