Don’t let the title of their new album, Getting Killed, idiot you — Geese are very a lot alive. After bursting onto the scene as scrappy youngsters, dropping the post-punky Projector (and nabbing a CoSign for it), the band’s trajectory has solely gone in the precise route. They first leveled up their songwriting with the extra warm-blooded 3D Country and, late final 12 months, frontman Cameron Winter dropped one of many buzziest solo debuts in latest reminiscence with the superb Heavy Metal. Now, Winter is again with the band for Getting Killed, and never solely is it Geese’s finest providing but, it would simply be one of the inventive indie rock data of the 2020s.
Getting Killed appears like Geese breaking their earlier molds, gluing them again along with a sure degree of reckless abandon, and seeing what new shapes of guitar music come out of it. Whereas their first launch leaned on slick grooves and vibes that borrowed from New York Metropolis’s indie rock previous (assume Interpol or The Strokes) and their second album discovered them carving out a heart-on-their-sleeve silliness that felt extra true to themselves, the brand new set blasts the conception of the band vast open; it’s a voice that, whereas indebted to trailblazers of the previous, is all their very own.
Take opening lower “Trinidad,” which successfully units the tone for what’s to return. Guitarist Emily Inexperienced assaults every ear independently with warbly, borderline funky licks combined in harsh stereo. Winter then enters softly, tapping into his falsetto, just for the entire thing to blow up on a dime with horns, new tracks of instrumentation that lower out and in like they’re malfunctioning, and screams of, “THERE’S A BOMB IN MY CAR!” Because the tune progresses, it solely turns into more and more chaotic with closely delayed vocal strains, extra hard-panning, and drummer Max Bassin’s multilayered percussion, which appears like an earthquake hit a center college band room. On paper, it appears like a observe susceptible to being an incoherent mess; in your headphones, it sounds completely exhilarating.
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The wildness of the manufacturing is one thing Winter struck gold with on Heavy Steel. On that largely piano-based undertaking, Winter discovered magnificence in unusual timbres, free feels, and weird recording strategies. (The person himself has claimed he recorded elements in various Guitar Centers, enlisted the assistance of Craigslist musicians, and had a five-year-old play bass — although at the very least a few of this has proven to be Winter doing a little Bob Dylan-esque mythologizing.) Whereas that resulted in a uniquely intimate really feel for his solo enterprise, using related ways along with his rock band manifests in a reside wire of a document. The sides are completely frayed, and there’s an anxious pleasure that, at any second, it would all collapse. It’s a mode that feels aligned with early Velvet Underground or Iggy and The Stooges, the place the pursuit of studio perfection is swapped out for character, intrigue, and rattling tremendous songwriting.
Later tracks like “100 Horses” and “Half Actual” pull off such methods to spectacular outcomes, with the latter even beginning out with a number of seconds of drone that nearly appears like a direct reference to “Venus in Furs.” “Husbands” equally finds an unconventional groove, upon which it builds a song-long crescendo, whereas “Bow Down” turns a staccato riff into an off-kilter dance celebration earlier than a false ending results in a cool guitar solo. Tracks like these play with the identical genres Geese have expressed curiosity in earlier than — post-punk, funky rock ‘n’ roll, basic rock, artsy indie music — although that is the quartet’s most compelling synthesis of these types but.
The identical reward might be utilized to the tunes on Getting Killed that play it softer and sweeter. “Cobra” is breezy and boasts a Seashore Boys-esque sonic palette, the splendidly titled “Au Pays du Cocaine” trots alongside at a tempo that spotlights Winter’s expressive baritone, and “Islands of Males” slowly develops its sunny vibes over the course of six minutes as bassist Dominic DiGesu walks up and down his fretboard. That tune, particularly, feels functionally paying homage to “Pacific Theme” from Damaged Social Scene’s You Forgot It in Folks, and never only for the tropical titling, however slightly for it’s pacing, instrumental improvement, and placement within the tracklist.
