Scatter The Rats

The first L7 album in 20 years, Scatter the Rats embodies everything that made the band so iconic in the first place-the distortion-heavy riffs and headbanging rhythms, sludgy grooves and indelible melodies. And in their lyrics, L7 achieve a direct transmission of raw feeling, often spiked with biting commentary on the chaos of the world today.

* Producer Norm Block (Jenny Lee, Paper Cranes, Plexi)

* Producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

''Burn Baby'' opens the album with a galvanizing reflection on letting go of old grudges for the sake of fighting a greater evil, while ''Fighting the Crave'' offers a slice of life on the inner push and pull of whatever one might crave. Throughout the album, L7 also examine depression (Sparks's ''Holding Pattern,'' which matches its delicate melody with a disarming vulnerability), lonely hearts (Suzi Gardner's gloriously swampy ''Murky Water Cafe'') and codependency (the unhinged ''Garbage Truck,'' written by Jennifer Finch). And on ''Uppin' the Ice,'' the band delivers a dance-worthy track inspired by a bit of advice Demetra Plakas got from her doctor upon breaking her arm before the band headed into the studio. ''I took the idea of upping the ice as a metaphor for throwing down and doing what you have to do to make something happen, naysayers be damned, because that's who we are as a band,'' says Sparks.