Deerhoof have crafted classic LPs by scraping out lo-fi noise-rock (Milk Man) and meticulously over-dubbing hi-fi art-pop (Friend Opportunity), switching studio techniques as frequently as they’ve morphed styles. For their 14th album, The Magic, the quartet decamped to an abandoned office space in the New Mexico desert, knocking out 41 minutes of reliably batshit absurdity in one week. This time, the rapid-fire approach is evident, occasionally to the music’s detriment. “That Ain’t No Life to Me” finds drummer/producer Greg Saunier half-mumbling punk platitudes (“I don’t care how the other half lives/ ‘Cause I’ve seen how the other half dies”) over rudimentary, speaker- splitting distortion; “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” finds singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki moaning awkwardly over a plodding drum machine drone collage. But lop off these anomalies, and you’re left with some of Deerhoof’s most multifaceted work in years—from sugary noise-pop (“Kafe Mania!”) to prog-fusion funk (“Model Behavior,” highlighted by a martian laser-beam guitar solo) to a heady banger that resembles an avant-garde Beastie Boys (“Debut”). Despite its tedious moments, the peaks of The Magic reaffirm Deerhoof’s status as one of modern rock’s rare innovators.