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Apr 22, 2015 Speedy Ortiz By Scott Dransfield

Speedy Ortiz came out of the gate in a big way with 2013’s Major Arcana. It had a lot of blissful fuzz and clever, off-kilter guitar lines, and it drew inevitable comparisons to Pavement. So to keep that line of thought going, if Major Arcana is Speedy Ortiz’s Slanted and Enchanted, their new album Foil Deer skips a few years ahead to Pavement’s third full-length, Wowee Zowee. It’s difficult, ambitious, and very diverse. And while it’s fun to see such a promising band trying to make big leaps, Foil Deer only succeeds when Sadie Dupuis and company stick to their roots.

“Raising the Skate,” Foil Deer‘s lead single, may be one of Speedy Ortiz’s best songs yet: Dupuis’ trademark guitar meanders all over an offbeat rhythm, leading to a killer chorus. “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss,” Dupuis declares, and she means it. The remainder of the tracklist, unfortunately, doesn’t reach the heights of “Raising the Skate,” and in some cases, the band veers off in some unexpected and not-entirely-welcome directions. “Homonovus” features a pleasant, hazy verse, but its intricate guitar parts are ruined by a noisy, chaotic chorus that’s hard to get through. The next track, “Puffer,” is the strangest left turn here, with a slick groove that hews a little too close to the aggro-rock of mid-‘00s radio.

Foil Deer never quite recovers from that mid-album detour, though closer “Dvrk Wvrld” effectively strips the sound down to Speedy Ortiz’s melodic bones. Despite this slight disappointment, it’s worth following the band through this cycle and the next, because Sadie Dupuis remains the most idiosyncratic of our current batch of ‘90s-inspired songwriters. (www.speedyortiz.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 6/10