Pressing play on a Perennial album has a lot in common with lighting a fuse: it means an explosion is imminent. The title track that opens the New England trio’s latest, Modernism, features about four seconds of keyboard noise and guitar sizzle before the drums kick in, the guitar riff detonates, and the whole song ripples outward like a blast wave. Yet for all their punk volatility, Perennial have a deceptively intricate approach to songwriting, which is all the more impressive considering that even with ten tracks, Modernism tops out at twenty minutes (“long-player” is a relative term here). They make the most of it, building concise arrangements out of multiple musical elements with an elegance you don’t always find in loud, fast music. The churning guitars on “Modernism” cut out after the first verse, leaving behind a Mellotron flute sound and little bursts of electric organ over galloping drums. Then the riff surges back in, pumping the adrenaline through the roof as the song builds to a close. Much of the band’s music follows a similar pattern, though there’s nothing same-y or predictable about it. Guitarist Chad Jewett’s buzzy riff jumpstarts “What’s New on the Beat Scene” while Chelsey Hahn adds slashing organ vamps and drummer Ceej Wolf plays a drum part that clings on while the song whirls around as if fueled by its own internal power source. Amid the breakneck thrashing on Modernism is the band’s first slow(er) jam, “Granny Smith Apple,” with layers of keyboards hovering over a slushy snare fill. It’s almost meditative. Perennial’s love of 1960s English mod imagery has long been part of the band’s music, and the theme is more prominent than ever on Modernism. Along with references to the beat scene, the organ-drenched rave-up “Ready! Steady! Go!” and “Perennial ’65” drop the band right at the intersection of mod culture and the Swinging London pop scene that took over in the latter half of the decade. With a serrated guitar riff and Jewett and Hahn alternating on vocals (as they do through much of the band’s catalog), the song embraces a “spy-fi” aesthetic: “The wristwatch is a microphone / There’s Morse code in the dial tone,” Jewett sings, at full intensity. The spy theme runs throughout the album, inspired in part by the sixties British TV series The Avengers—indeed, the last song, “Emma Peel,” is named for the stylish heroine played by Diana Rigg. The track is seventy-three seconds of gnashing mayhem bursting with machine-gun-fire guitar, shout-singing vocals, a relentless kick drum, and eerie organ. What more could you want, really? The spy stuff isn’t the only motif here. Modernism and 2024’s lacerating Art History are both full of art references, and Jewett has a fondness for lyrics that refer back to other songs, sometimes across albums. Winged insects, ivy, and haunted houses are among the images that recur: “Food for Hornets,” on 2022’s In the Midnight Hour, sets up “Mouthful of Bees” on Art History, for example, and the line Hahn sings here about dressing for the weather on “Baby, Are You Abstract?” is a callback to a similar phrase from “Up-tight” on Art History. The effect is like the band ushering you through a hidden door into a secret clubhouse (haunted house?) where mod culture, punk rock, classic B-movies, and art appreciation come together into an irresistible whole, set to ferocious, deeply joyous music. [Ernest Jenning Record Co.] Eric R. Danton has been contributing to Paste since 2013. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and Pitchfork, among other publications. He writes Freak Scene, a newsletter about music in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.