The Terminals, Last Days of the Sun (CD)

New Zealand's Terminals made two albums in the mid-90s, Touch and Little Things, that floored me when they came out.  The influences of Joy Division and Pere Ubu were both obvious, but a messy noisiness reminiscent of the Dead C moved them far from their canonical influences.  Apart from a live CD, they did not release a new album until 2007's Last Days of the Sun.  Steven Cogle's deadpan vocals retain their distinctive power, and the heavy noisy parts still can be overpowering.  Last Days of the Sun feels and sounds a bit less rough than the earlier albums, and while this cleanliness reveals the songs more clearly, the group loses some of its impact as a result.  While Last Days of the Sun has many great songs, I generally like albums under an hour in length, because they're better suited for one sitting.  The packaging here is far less distinctive than Touch or Little Things.