Perhaps it’s a mere calendrical coincidence, but it’s entirely appropriate for us to find ourselves in the heat of the heat, packing our summer plans and settling down our well-deserved weeks of vacation, with the fact that the bright and torrid chords of a band that emanates heat, road and travel on all four sides. And it is that, after more than five years compiling their past successes and editing direct in a process that almost cost them the fall into oblivion, the members of Deer Tick sign their expected return, in order to reconquer what one day they possessed with “Emotional Contracts”a naughty and sarcastic look at alt-country, with a 70s summer flavor, which partly distances itself from the barracha of genres offered in its previous and homonymous chapters of 2017, in favor of launching more regular lines with which to return to its sound root.
As soon as their waddling rhythms of pure rock’n’roll begin to sound, we will automatically have the feeling of traveling in time through the ABC’s of this Providence band that has been forming a unique label for more than two decades. Flashes of southern guitar and a characteristic voice, torn and nasal, welcome us with contagious enthusiasm in “If I Try To Leave”, generating a playful and retro sphere that could well have been signed by a young Lynyrd Skynyrd back in the day. Consequently, and intoxicated by this tex-mex wrapper with the air of a roadside bar, the group led by John McCauley competes successfully in its work to approach the explicit decadence of the genre’s narrative, set against it by doses of antagonistic light that dissolve introspection for the good of the movement, creating with “Forgiving Ties” one of their most danceable tracks. A rogue debauchery that does not even stop when his most melancholic face seems to emerge (“Grey Matter”) or when the memory of past love becomes a double-edged sword difficult to grasp (“If She Could Only See Me Now”).
To its barren and arid literature, printed with the alternating signature of McCauley and Dennis Ryan in its letters, are added some amusing and flowery nuances, provoked by the unexpected intrusion of some accordion arrangements that surprise us between festive cuts like “Disgrace”, complementing his proposal for good and directly inviting us to put on our boots with spurs and our wide-brimmed hat. Not exempt from romanticism and emotion, the quartet decides to redirect the relaxed tone of their particular evening, with a low-key and resolved ending between passages reminiscent of some of their best songs (“My Ship”) and others that serve as an ideal corollary. to a personal and intimate road-trip (“Just behind the door, I thought, were the answers to my questions”, they sing in the conclusive “The Real Thing”). A return to the origins that successfully avoids the dangers of pigeonholing and stylistic obsolescence, although this deprives us of the pleasure of seeing a certain freshness and novelty in his movements.
Emotional Contracts de Deer Tick