Following a highly praised EP, The Coast have created what sounds like the best U2 album in years. Though their guitars tremble more innovatively than those of the Edge (patches of reverb peer through the vocals and burnt-out bass on “Tightrope”), The Joshua Tree’s big beats and chords define Expatriate, an album that jumps through as many alterna-hoops as possible. The best tracks are the workmanlike singles “Killing Off Our Friends,” “Ceremony Guns” (on which they even work a little biting National bass and brass in there), and “Nueva York,” its pounding piano turning the sublime through the stopping and starting of guitars flaming out in peaceful whirls. Though “Song For Gypsy Rose Lee” features the Bono-esque falsetto of lead singer Ben Spurr, rest assured, it’s surprisingly artful.

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