Arriving five years after their debut EP and two years after signing with Matador Records, the appropriately titled Ripped and Torn marks the full-length debut of noisy Chicago trio Lifeguard. Dissonant, malcontent, and relentlessly driving yet unpredictable, it sees the group expand on a web of stylistic influences ranging from noise-rock to punk and no wave, just for starters. The album begins with a pulsing wall of noise on “A Tightwire,” whose racing tempo, churning chords, and crashing cymbals are eventually accompanied by half-incomprehensible sung and shouted grievances made only more ominous by the title of the second track, “It Will Get Worse.” The latter is an “oh-oh”-laden, Ramones-type bop draped in clatter. Songs like the under-two-minute…

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