It’s not uncommon for musicians to grow and evolve between releases—but even by those standards, the Districts’ Popular Manipulations is stunning. The Pennsylvania-borne band’s third full-length represents an exponential leap in sound and cohesion, an impressive and impassioned burn with a wide scope that threatens to swallow everything else surrounding it. Perhaps it’s a cliché to say so, but while listening, you might find yourself wondering why people don’t make indie rock like this anymore. 

The total electric charge of Popular Manipulations is just the latest evolution for the impressively young quartet, whose founding members—vocalist/guitarist Rob Grote, bassist Connor Jacobus, and drummer Braden Lawrence—have known each other since attending grade school together in the Pennsylvania town of Lititz. After deciding to form a band in high school, the Districts gigged hard in the tri-state area, releasing a slew of promising material (including the rootsy 2012 debut Telephone) before catching the eye of venerable indie Fat Possum. 2015’s A Flourish and a Spoil found the band refining their embryonic sound with veteran producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Kurt Vile)—and looking back on that release, there are glimmers of Popular Manipulations in chrysalis form to be found on it, hints of the fence-swinging anthemic sound they’d soon make wholly their own.