Deerhoof [ tickets ] takes the components of your favorite music--the riffs, the beats, the melodies, the sheer pleasure of the human spirit in full cry--and rearranges the audio furniture into something new and unusual.

It's a creation as surreal and off-kilter as a David Lynch film, with a similar mix of warm fuzzies and cold pricklies, but without the Lynchian pit-of-hell darkness. And the best thing is that the listener never knows what to expect.

"Friend Opportunity" is Deerhoof's ninth album, about the time when most bands are either a shell of their former selves or relying on formula. But the salvo of chords that opens "The Perfect Me" and the detours that follow show that Deerhoof--Satomi Matsuzaki (bass, vocals), John Dieterich (guitar) and Greg Saunier (drums)--is still finding new places to explore.

There are enough high points ("+81," "Choco Fight," "Matchbook Seeks Maniac") here to make this record at least the equal of 2005's "The Runners Four"--and that record was Deerhoof's best.