Des Ark: Don't Rock the Boat, Sink the Fucker

In the six years since Des Ark's abrasive, folk-tinged debut, Loose Lips Sink Ships, Chapel Hill, N.C.-based singer/songwriter and bandleader Aimée Argote has grown tremendously. Her arrangements are tighter, denser and more focused. Don't Rock the Boat sticks to the raucous model established by the band, but the record shifts almost abruptly between that caustic intensity and delicate guitar lines in a way that underscores Argote's aggressively bisexual lyrics. The record's standout track "FTW, Y'all!!!" revolves around that tension as it details a failed relationship. Nowhere is the drama made more overt than when Argote sings over a crashing crescendo, "You were getting strung out everyday, and I was fucking every girl who looked my way." It's a shocking and intimate portrait, well worth the six-year wait. (4 out of 5 stars)