Kid Dakota?s second album, ?The West is the Future,? builds on the heavy pop crunch of their debut, ?So Pretty,? with bleak noise anthems detailing a hard Midwestern existence. ?Pilgrim? opens at a gallop and only gets louder with power chords and throbbing rhythms. ?Homesteader? is better with its gothic take on Americana doused in reverb, and augmented with lush harmonies from Alan and Mimi of Low (Zak Sally plays bass in KD). ?Ivan? offers another garage punk meltdown that reveals the coarse underbelly of Kid Dakota, integral to their overall depressive vibe. The mellow acoustic guitars and piano of ?Ten Thousand Lakes? sound almost like later Radiohead doused in Neil Young?s stoned roots folk. The Radiohead comparison really only applies because Darren Jackson sounds like Thom Yorke, and Kid Dakota tempers their melancholic noise pop with trippy psychedelic flourishes and rootsier vibes, but R-head?s no more an influence here than mid 70s Pink Floyd, Neil Young and Crazy Horse or Slint. Lonesome and heartbroken, ?The West is the Future? offers at least the promise of a better day, which will have to do for now. 8/10 -- Lee Jackson (8 June, 2005)