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(Sub Pop Records; 2006)
Saturday Night Rating: 4/5 stars

To paraphrase Public Enemy, Chad VanGaalen is a hero to most. Or at least he should be. Last year, the gawky, folky Canadian’s “Infiniheart” had the misfortune of dropping alongside one of Sub Pop Records’ biggest releases of 2005, Wolf Parade’s “Apologies to the Queen Mary.” The label’s media push went to the already growling wolf band, and so VanGaalen went on to sell a paltry several thousand copies of his gorgeous, glistening debut album. Since then, he’s quite possibly been indie rock’s best-kept secret: a heart-wrenching songwriter with the recording prowess of a lo-fi Nigel Godrich and a voice that could only be born of a secret tryst between Neil Young and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. But now, wolves at bay, Chad’s out of the bag.

While not quite hitting the staggering highs of “Infiniheart,” “Skelliconnection” is the more consistent of the two albums and certainly the noisier. It opens with the riff-driven “Flower Gardens,” a two-and-a-half minute faux-metal scorcher that will leave fans of VanGaalen’s sleepier material scratching their heads. It’s a healthy change for the musician, though, and he embraces his louder side on songs such as “Burn 2 Ash” and the stellar “Dead Ends.” It’s “Dead Ends” which best marries his post-apocalyptic lyricism with buoyant musicianship: “Broken hearts last for a million years,” he sings before noting, over the stomp of drums and electric guitars, “Maybe we can last just a little longer.”

His wavering tenor exudes sincerity, a trait that makes otherwise unbelievable songs such as “See-Thru Skin” work under the weight of verses like “I can see my veins right through my skin / They are blue and green and branch right out / like those new floating highways.” As with “Infiniheart,” VanGaalen’s lyrics are on a paranoid science fiction bent that echoes both “The Matrix” and the novels of Isaac Asimov. Yet he merges his futuristic leanings with rootsy, sepia-toned Americana: “Wind Driving Dogs” finds him singing the blues, and the acoustic “Wing Finger” wouldn’t be out of place on Iron & Wine’s last album.

“Skelliconnection,” like “Infiniheart” before it, was recorded almost entirely by VanGaalen in his home studio. Despite its low budget, the album follows in the aesthetic of the Microphones’ “The Glow, Pt. 2”: it’s lo-fi for headphones, and as such there are bizarre, wonderful touches on nearly every song. But it’s the confidence of the songwriting and the performances that make this a breakthrough work. There’s blood and sinew between these robot bones that’s simply undeniable, and though it might not make it to a million, “Skelliconnection” already seems destined for long life.