Melbourne quintet CIVIC could barely have chosen a better producer for their second album than Radio Birdman vocalist Rob Younger. Taken by Force races with the same high-wire, jittery intensity of Birdman in full flight, with added sweat-drenched doses of The Saints, The Stooges, and blistering surf punk (“Time Girl”). This potent sonic cocktail mirrors the sense of urgency and existential dread that informs the album’s themes, with vocalist Jim McCullough covering topics such as mortality (“End of the Line”), domestic violence (“Trick of the Light”), anxiety (“Blood Rushes”), and the decline of the Western world (the title track). The album is bookended by two wildly differing yet eerily ominous soundscapes—opener “Dawn” features staccato drums over a chilling air raid siren; closer “Dusk” the sound of waves lapping against the shore as an unsettling synth drone pulses underneath—a respite from the mayhem sonically, if not the mood.