While Jana Hunter isn't too fond of the term "concept album"--saying earlier this year that the term tends to conjure images of rock operas--she is certainly willing and eager to talk about the unifying theme behind Lower Dens' superb second album Nootropics : no less that all of humanity, and where we are headed in a world in which runaway advances in chemistry and technology feed a near-insatiable need to extend, advance, and procreate, if not flat-out replicate.

This neo-Frankenstein idea runs throughout the record, which marks a decided turn in a more electronic direction for Lower Dens, whether it's in a driving, pulsating form, as in "Brains", "Lion in Winter Pt.2" and "Candy", the album's poppiest offering;  wrapped in sonic swirls, as in the grand "Nova Anthem"and "Propagation", the deceptively soothing ode to a "population incandescent"; or, broad, hypnotic and meandering on "In the End is the Beginning",  the 12-minute closer that suggests that as dire as things may be, that there be a new and even better life ahead.

The considerable anticipation for this album was not in vain. Here's predicting that as 2012 goes on, Nootropics is a record you come back to time and time again. Like the pharmaceuticals it's named after, Lower Dens' latest is scarily addictive.