Deerhoof Vs. Evil
Album | Deerhoof
Accessible without losing their art-punk edge.
Taking an uncharacteristic two-year-plus break between albums, Deerhoof return with their most consistently satisfying album so far. Previously, the prolific band tended to veer wildly between skronky no-wave noise and an oddball, almost childlike form of skewed pop, but on Deerhoof Vs. Evil, both sides of the band's musical personality are integrated into one complex but immediately appealing sound. Maintaining the two-guitar lineup introduced on 2008's Offend Maggie but dialing way back on the feedback and freeform song structure, these 12 songs still make unpredictable left turns, but now they're firmly rooted in recognizable pop-song forms: "Behold a Marvel in the Darkness" even has a straightforward (and super-catchy!) chorus hook. Similarly, bassist Satomi Matsuzaki's vocals have had their more willfully abrasive edges sanded off, her taste for off-kilter yelps apparently subsumed by her knack for sounding winsome and adorable even when singing lines like "I'm gonna sue you!" Accessible without losing any of the band's charming quirks, Deerhoof Vs. Evil might be the album that finally moves them beyond their devoted cult.
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