Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
One band who love to submit their cute n' cuddly pop ways to ragged rock, freeform trips and fuzzed-out noise glory- and we love 'em for it... 2ser Supporters have the chance to win a copy all week on Breakfast, Overdrive and Static.
Deerhoof
"Tens, hundreds and thousands of love messages." So sings Satomi in the opening lines of Offend Maggie. The lyric seems to sum up the feeling of the album. This is Deerhoof at their most explosive and poignant. Satomi's voice has never sounded so downright beautiful, and the band supports with more care than ever, as if each member were trying to squeeze the last amount of emotion from each note, each scrape of the cymbal. Indeed, if last year's flowery Friend Opportunity was much of the world's first handshake with Deerhoof, Offend Maggie finds them inviting us into their basement with flashlights and showing us pictures of the ones they love. Deerhoof, more than ever, has its heart on its sleeve.
For a band as self-questioning as this one, this shift has been a long time in coming. Deerhoof's members have always trusted in their instincts above all else, but never has a group instinct, honed over years of globetrotting, seemed so palpable as now. This is the performing unit we hear bashing it out on this record: all fingers and arms and throats and muscles, physical, and at times brutal. What comes across is humanity unadorned, in the protagonist of the lyrics, in the singer in front of the mic, in the band members and their relationships and interactions.
As a result this record gets under the skin more slowly but expresses something deeper, and makes a more lasting impression. This is their "feel" record, loose and funky and rough around the edges - an album that wants you to hang out in it for a while. Like its cover art (by Japanese artist Tomoo Gokita, whose name will be familiar to anyone following new art) Offend Maggie is stark, ambiguous, half naked, creating tension through negative space.
