Well, ladies and gentlemen and everyone between, here it is. For your listening pleasure, The Mallard is streaming its second and final album, Finding Meaning in Deference, on SPIN, and bloody hell, it’s damn good. Borderline indecently good. It simmers in tension, with vocals as manic as ever, buts it’s also catchier than anything The Mallard has, or ever will, put out–the cheeky, toe-tapping, head bobbing rhythms of the opener “A Form of Mercy,” the riffs on songs like “Guster” and “Decade,” the slow groove of “React, ” the eerie way Greer McGettrick sings “Just an Ending,” like she’s telling everyone bummed on her band’s dissolution to suck it up. (Note: The album was written and recorded months before she decided to end the project. Though this only makes me wonder if, among her talents, McGettrick can also see the future).

I was in the line of thought that having a posthumous album from The Mallard would soften the blow, but now that it’s happened, it’s like having to break up with the band all over again. Finding Meaning in Deference is out on Castle Face Records on July 29, but have a listen to the entire LP via SPIN. Trust me, its worth the heart ache.