The old friction between order and madness brilliantly shines on this New York duo’s second album. Guitarist Mary Halvorson sings like a 1940s pop starlet reciting Burroughs in the shower while Kevin Shea’s anti-rhythms hurl pots and pans at her. The contradiction is amusing but a raw creepiness arises on Misbegotten–it’s heard in the way that Halvorson curls her wailing notes on the melodramatic “Interconnected Galaxalization,” and on the raindrops ‘n’ lollipops ballad gone horribly wrong in “MySpace, O MySpace.” Despite the fact that the People’s sound grows homogenous at times, they still produce genuine Martian art here.