A snarling, twisted, mischievous creation, ‘Foil Deer’ is a leaping, high-spirited joy of a record.
With Foil Deer, the band show more strings to their bows than they have with any of their previous releases.
‘Foil Deer’ sees Dupuis draw an emphatic line under her past ache for acceptance, angling her angst into sharp bursts of wiry college rock targeting the “riddle-rousing cowards” who made her that way.
This album makes you work, forces you to hit repeat not to relive sweet, instantly gratifying thrills, but to let it root into your brain to understand it better.
Dupuis and Speedy Ortiz walk along intersections effortlessly: now and then, power and fragility, intricate poetry and direct prose, pain and pleasure. Foil Deer does this as well as their excellent debut, but also takes some risks in its growth.
The band’s strengths are all the same, but they’ve been developed, and their focus seems to have stabilized and sharpened.
Foil Deer never seems out of focus. Dupuis’ voice as a songwriter is growing more captivating with every release, her songs’ direction streamlined without growing predictable.
With its genre manipulation and intensely poetic, socially aware lyrics, Foil Deer is a stronger, more assertive record with more to say for itself.
From the mangled hip-hop grooves of “Puffer” and the grimy guitar acrobatics on “Raising The Skate” to the screeching noise jags lurching through “Homonovus,” Foil Deer is a meticulous collection which deconstructs convention.
There’s enough on Foil Deer to show that Sadie Dupuis and Speedy Ortiz can be the captain and the boss of this generation of indies.
Song for song, this is some of Speedy Ortiz's best work yet.
As the band continues to evolve around and with her, Speedy Ortiz’s music finally sounds as complex as its leader dares to be.
Even if Speedy Ortiz isn’t afraid to take chances, its strength still lies in ’90s-minded indie rock that’s become its calling card. For the slackers of the world, that’s good enough.
There was a sense that this record would be Speedy Ortiz's great leap forward. Instead, we get some tentative baby steps in the right direction, as the band settle for just really good instead of truly great.
Foil Deer is an upswing from the listless cynicism that clouded their 2013 breakout, Major Arcana: This time, Dupuis and fellow guitarist Devin McKnight take charge.
Growing pains haunt some of the deeper cuts, stalling on mid-tempo attempts at maturation that, while admirable, don’t further their songwriting craft in the way they would have hoped.
Foil Deer isn’t an easy listen but it is a compelling one.
Winging away from Major Arcana‘s dark, tense pockets ... stretches Speedy Ortiz thin at times on Foil Deer. But Dupuis doesn’t care.
Some of the instinctive live energy of previous releases is lost amidst the precision and tracks could do with being rougher around the edges.
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.
A smart, savvy record that happened upon me by complete surprise. Several spins later and I'm still digging the sound. This band will get better with time!
A smart, savvy record that happened upon me by complete surprise. Several spins later and I'm still digging the sound. This band will get better with time!
1 | Good Neck 1:37 | |
2 | Raising the Skate 4:14 | 95 |
3 | The Graduates 3:57 | 90 |
4 | Dot X 3:38 | 70 |
5 | Homonovus 3:18 | 75 |
6 | Puffer 2:46 | 85 |
7 | Swell Content 1:48 | 75 |
8 | Zig 4:32 | 75 |
9 | My Dead Girl 4:22 | 80 |
10 | Ginger 2:38 | 75 |
11 | Mister Difficult 3:36 | 70 |
12 | Dvrk Wvrld 4:39 | 75 |
#18 | / | Newsweek |
#27 | / | No Ripcord |
#41 | / | Noisey |
#44 | / | Diffuser |
#44 | / | Stereogum |
#45 | / | Complex |
#88 | / | Under the Radar |
#92 | / | Crack Magazine |