Deerhoof – Miracle-Level
Back with their 19th album, wonky-pop mainstays Deerhoof are on reliably solid form
There’s always the fun with a new Deerhoof album of what in God’s name you’re going to find. Throughout their 28 years as a band, part of their singular joy is their constant sense of wanting to reshape themselves as much as they can, whilst so rarely changing their lineup.
It's a shockingly linear progression this time. They maintain most of Actually, You Can’s palette of more traditionally rock sounds collaged and distorted by their playing until they’re essentially unrecognisable. It’s exciting, but at times you can’t help but miss the fun of guessing quite how they’ve managed to make the bass sound like custard oozing through a sock.
Their experimentation lies more structurally than sonically here. Take opener Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story. and its ever changing rhythm; in turns a feral tumble, a pounding grandstand or a jaunty little skip. It works brilliantly well, and the record as a whole fizzes with this energy of constant transformation, never settling for long, instead it feels like being pulled about by a giddy dog in a butchers. It also means that when they do lock into an extended groove it feels all the more impactful, be it the slinky The Little Maker, or the fractious firestorm that emerges in the middle of Momentary Art of Soul! It makes for an album where brevity belies what an enlivening and broad world it contains.
Listen to: Momentary Art of Soul!, My Lovely Cat!, Sit Down, Let Me Tell You a Story.