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While remaining true to their scrappy underground roots, indie rock four piece Speedy Ortiz deliver a more polished and sophisticated sound with sophomore LP Foil Deer.
Rockin’ four piece Speedy Ortiz deliver some heavy guitar licks on their sophomore album Foil Deer.
Hailing from Northampton Massachusetts, the band was initially a solo project of frontwoman Sadie Dupuis who pulled together a full band in 2011 to quickly release single Taylor Swift followed by 2012 five track EP Sports. The group’s 2013 debut album, Major Arcana was well received by critics and pegged as Pitchfork’s ‘Best New Music.’ Drummer Mike Falcone, bassist Darl Fern and Dupuis recruited guitarist Devin McKnight of post-punk band Grass is Green for their sophomore LP.
The band’s music if defined by the combination of Dupuis’ poetic, introspective and confessional lyrics with shambolic 90s lo-fi sound. The group draws influence from a slew of 90’s alt-rock and noise rock acts such as Pavement, Polvo and The Breeders as well as from their contemporaries from the Boston and Northampton underground music scenes. Driven by Dupuis’ talents as a singer-songwriter the group’s music is saturated with poetic lyrics carrying simple and forthright messages of angst, frustration and empowerment.
For their sophomore EP demos were written and recorded by Dupuis in the Connecticut woods around her mother’s home. While the group spent only a few days laying down their debut, they put a great deal of work into recording and tightening up their instrumental section to turn out a more considered and well-produced sound. While their newest recordings doesn’t loose the dense basement vibe, the higher production values give the instrumentation some space to shine through.
The band’s creative process and time in the studio have yielded no shortage of material with Foil Deer comprising of 12 tracks. The calamitous Good Neck is the first track off the bat, providing a lengthy instrumental introduction before receding into a mellow acoustics and vocals. Raising the Skate and The Graduates are the standout tracks perfectly showcasing the duality of confidence and vulnerability that characterises Dupuis’ songwriting and the band’s music as a whole. On Raising the Skate Dupuis evokes the no-nonsense and take charge attitude of The Breeders‘ Kim Deal, waxing lyrical over the top heavy 90s alt-rock riffs.
Durpis asserts that she’s in control stating “I’m not bossy/ I’m the boss.’ The Graduates draws inspiration from Dupuis’ initially unreciprocated affection for Cloud Nothing‘s frontman Dylan Baldi and high school nostalgia to weave an engaging ballad about consistently running in second. Dot X is a track inspired by revenge fantasy, with a threatening groove from the rhythm section driving the track. The dissonant and tumultuous noise rock of Homonovus verges on an outright descent into noise driven chaos. Puffer is a venomous left of centre track which draws upon RnB influence. While the band might not entirely hit the mark, but it’s interesting to see the group having a bit of fun and taking on something new.
The underground lo-fi textures, heavy 90s licks and lyrical prowess of Foil Deer prove a worthy succession to debut LP Major Arcana and provides indifferent, effortless and well-crafted rock tunes sure to appeal to the disaffected slacker, outsider and low-getter in all of us.
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