Chapter three, No Energy, in which Numero Group continues their quest to convince us of Unwound’s undiminished greatness. Let me cut to the chase: this is my least favorite of the three entries thus far. Surely, I’m in the minority, but the highs among these collected tracks just aren’t as breathtaking as the savage vistas unleashed in the previous two collections. No Energy collects Unwound’s fourth and fifth albums, The Future of What and Repetition (both released by Kill Rock Stars), and related b-sides, live cuts, etcetera. The band we hear on those two albums seems downright professional compared to the scrappy howlers showcased on Fake Train and New Plastic Ideas. A little less staccato, a little more drone, a little less ferocity, a little more melody. ”I’m getting old,” is the primary complaint in “Natural Disasters,” and that track is a great example of how the band seems to have been maturing, which sometimes translates into surprisingly safe choices.

There are plenty of high points on The Future of What if you want the loud, hard stuff, specifically “Equally Stupid,” which balances dissonant riffs with a strange kind of pretty, the title track, and “Here Come the Dogs.” “Descension” (great title) milks the slow-fast formula that was dominating alt-rock in 1994–95 and takes it to a hardcore extreme. It’s the perfect marriage of a song to its sound. The chorus shouts, “We’re always sinking,” so naturally the song rides a slow build of horrid bass notes. However, the album also includes less inspired, mid-tempo sludge like “Natural Disasters” and “Re-Enact the Crime.” The year being 1994, they even include the obligatory five and a half minute late-album sad-sackery, “Disappoint,” and it does.

Repetition has fewer missteps, though the band occasionally loses momentum and starts sounding positively scrungy. It’s hard not to notice the track lengths creeping up and “Lowest Common Denominator” and “Next Exit” both suffer from mid-90s bloat. And while “Sensible” is a nice distraction, it’s a shame to think how well it would fit on that Mad Season record. Thankfully, the album kicks off with “Message Received,” which has much of what the last album was missing, and concludes with “For Your Entertainment,” which sounds like exactly the band Unwound were trying to be at this point. It’s compelling, raw, forceful, dynamic, epic, emotional, and situates them right on the unacceptable edge of the decade’s marginally acceptable stuff.