'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

After reforming in 2010 and touring, the band silently released the album at a concert in Boston on 1 October 2012. Official release dates followed on 15 October in Europe and the next day elsewhere. It was their first album since Yanqui U.X.O. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork wrote that "Mladic" and "We Drift Like Worried Fire" had been part of the live repertoire since 2003. Two tracks were recorded at Hotel2Tango, and the two short ones were recorded in a concrete jamspace and mixed at The Pines. Howard Bilerman recorded, and Harris Newman mastered at Greymarket. The album marked a change toward a less technically complex style that leaned on drones, and it dropped the idea of movements altogether.

The Guardian's Dom Lawson gave it 5 out of 5, and Paste's Tyler Kane gave it 8.9 out of 10. Stereogum placed it 13th among 2012's albums. It won the 2013 Polaris Music Prize on 23 September 2013. In their Polaris statement the band said: "Maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords."