Who says sequels can’t outrun predecessors? Building upon the sci-fi template of 2012’s Space Taste Race Part 1 EP, this veteran local prog-rock trio delivers its most fully realized effort to date. Opposite Day seizes the viscera with finely oiled musicianship running headlong into spellbinding time changes, but their appetite for whimsy and subliminal pop smarts steers clear of mathematical vapor lock. Not an easy feat on an album that starts with a song about the Drake Equation. “Air and Food” morphs from vibe-imbued arthouse score to throttle rock. “The Extent to Which Nothing Is Real” ends its majestic spiral with an assertion that it doesn’t actually exist. Guitarist/vocalist Sam Arnold’s lyrics converge in Greek mythology, astronomy, and artificial intelligence. Eschewing horn-rimmed didactics, he instead advances a loose narrative about a quest to discover the flavor of the heavens.

***.5

This article appears in Attack of the 50-Foot Uterus!.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.