Breakup Song
San Francisco, CA
(Polyvinyl Records)
“Breaking up made easy with shredding guitars, blasting percussion and speaker-melting surprises”
Since the birth of the Bay Area four-piece in 1994, Deerhoof has become one of the most prolific, inspirational and experimental domestic indie rock bands. Breakup Song is their tenth full-length and strikes as one of the band’s most frantically unpredictable releases. It erupts with jittering guitar strokes, quixotic electronic bursts and Greg Saunier’s renowned busy stick-work.
Singer/guitarist Satomi Matsuzaki makes her lyrical frays through the jutting textures and clattering instrumentation with odd polarity. Her voice takes a contrastingly sweet posture, stark considering how Breakup Song returns most dramatically to their Reveille days. One highlight, buoyant with discerning melody and Matsuzaki’s self-harmonization, “Flower” has a sensational breakdown with inescapable prophesy for anyone recently outside a relationship, repeating, “Let it go / Leave it all behind.” The song isn’t too unstructured and relentlessly busy and, dare it be said, it’s pretty. “Flower” is cut by an industrial sized wall of guitars/keyboards, “To Fly or Not to Fly,” another sensational mushroom cloud that resolves between chugging rhythms and the noisy, foreboding instrumental gauntlet.
The album is an incontestable work of creativity and a diamond in the extensive Deerhoof catalogue, a worthy jolt for both new and veteran fans.
Engineered, Recorded, Mixed, Mastered & Produced at Greg Saunier’s house in San Francisco, CA by Deerhoof