2x4 by Guadalcanal Diary

2x4, the third album from Marietta, Georgia's Guadalcanal Diary, came out on Elektra in 1987 with Don Dixon producing, and it's the one where the jangle grows teeth. Murray Attaway, Jeff Walls, Rhett Crowe on bass and John Poe, the multi-instrumentalist who took the drum stool "temporarily" and never left, had been the same four from the start, and it shows in how tightly they lock together.

Trouser Press called it smashing and heard the band digging into its art-rock past for a sound finally as distinctive as its lyrics; AllMusic rated it their strongest, most confident record, and Paste later ranked it 64th among the 80 best albums of the 1980s. "Litany (Life Goes On)" is the chiming centerpiece. It sits between Jamboree and Flip-Flop, and two years later the band called it quits.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.