In 2007, the post-rock movement was in full-swing. Bands like Explosions in the Sky and Mono were serving up epic, often heavy-handed instrumental rock treatise on the triumph of the human spirit. Battles’ first LP, Mirrored, was a splash of color in a scene that was, honestly, suffering a repetitive streak.

The debut by this math-prog super-group, featuring members of Helmet and Don Caballero, made many critics’ end-of-the-year list. It was fun and weird and catchy without taking itself too seriously.

Especially standout from past album Mirrored was singer Tyondai Braxton’s oddball vocal approach. By live-looping and pitch-shifting his voice, he transformed it to distinctive alien gibbers and moans. And when word came that Braxton had left the band to focus on his solo work and that the new record was to drop without him, a question came to mind: will this still be Battles?

Yet Gloss Drop plays like a natural continuation of Mirrored: the band doesn’t actually suffer much without Braxton’s vocal contortions.  Even with guest vocalists on numerous tracks, not much has changed. The wind-chime-like tinkle of the heavily-effected guitars and John Stanier’s precise, nonlinear drumming define tracks like “White Electric” or “Futura.” It largely feels like a collection of Mirrored outtakes punctuated by odd little guest spots (like the Gary Numan-fronted track).

The record loses focus near the end, and the band occasionally gets lost in its own hyper-clever riffs, but this is all familiar stuff to anyone who’s heard Mirrored.  Gloss Drop is a fun diversion overall, but Battles doesn’t actually say anything beyond “look how good we are at our instruments.” This is a band that isn’t doing anything wrong, per se—it’s just somehow more obvious on the second record than the first that they’re blazing a frankly uninteresting trail.

It may be that Mirrored was exciting because of timing, because of context. When that record came out, it was a breath of fresh air in an indie music world dominated by plodding, self-serious instrumentalism.

Outside of that framework, Battles is still a fantastic band. But Gloss Drop is nowhere near as illuminating as its predecessor. And if Battles’ strength as a band is relative to its backdrop – rather than any standalone quality – then maybe they were never as essential as they seemed.