Like their contemporaries (Ladytron, Le Tigre), Adult. hate the word Electroclash. Hate it. In fact, they despise it so much that member Nicola Kuperus will probably turn you into a subject for her murderous "still-life" photographs if you mention it to her backstage. Or perhaps you enjoy waking to the sound of hedge clippers severing your spinal cord?

The fear of this ever-looming stigma has served the band well: Gimmie Trouble is their most thoroughly developed and fleshed-out album to date. Though Adult. still revel in their distinctive detached thoughts and nervous energy -- a combination of the behaviors you might witness from a Trekkie in the presence of Shatner or a prison yard at the sight of a female visitor -- their sound is... different. Fortunately, it's a change for the better.

The band's production -- once overtly digital, even robotic -- now drips with a fresh coat of warm organics, in part due to the presence of guitarist Sam Consiglio (until now, Adult. was Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller). Drum machines, chirping percussion and dirty synths still run rampant, but they're coupled with a decent helping of six-string guitar and barely processed bass. With this providential marriage, Adult. freely explores a broad range of dynamics, colors and songwriting techniques. For example, they open "Thought I Choked" with a slinking, non-tonal modular synth loop, and join it with an even slinkier bass guitar line and Consiglio's Bauhaus-aping four-note guitar-work. As the track develops, they modulate each of these elements into a living, growing organism, holding it in thrall with Kuperus's increasingly fevered message: "cracked and broke / you thought I choked / could happen today, not tomorrow, not Sunday at noon / not telling, not saying / I might do to you."

This brings us to another contrast with previous Adult. albums: Kuperus's vocals. Her treated monotone is all but replaced here by a dry performance style, which gives her more of an opportunity to explore her abilities as a performer. And explore she does: her technique is a survey of the history of non-singing post-punkers. Her performance ranges from operatic diva to carnival barker to cartoonish mouse to psychotic metal vixen to Mae West -- and that's over the course of a single song! Her agitation and deliberate lack of melody can be offputting, if not downright weird, and though it may never grow on you, it's captivating. She's frightening and engaging all at once -- the sort of vocalist you can't ignore.

With regards to his and Adult.'s home town, Detroit, DJ Juan Atkins once mentioned that you have to dream up your own future to escape the bleakness. Adult. have not only done this -- again -- but have now completely transcended the "E" word that so many listeners liked to force upon them. Gimmie Trouble reminds us that Adult. don't sound like anyone else... Not even themselves.