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New Sounds from Old Friends
San Francisco indie band Deerhoof delivers another eclectic art-pop collection of songs with their new album Friend Opportunity.
In the past year and a half, veteran San Francisco indie rock band Deerhoof have been busy. Since October of 2005, when they released The Runners Four, an album largely considered by fans and music critics alike to be their best album to date, Deerhoof has toured extensively, both headlining their own shows and opening for monumental bands such as Radiohead. They have also lost a member -- guitarist Chris Cohen amicably left the band to pursue his other band, The Curtains, full time -- but found time to self-record their latest album Friend Opportunity, released through the Kill Rock Stars/5RC imprint on January 23, 2007.
The new album is a slight departure from The Runners Four, likely because of the loss of Cohen’s influence in the songwriting process. However, the result is a perfect opportunity, pun intended, to showcase the remaining members’ influences that they bring to the band. The redefinition of their sound captures the versatility of the band’s music as they continue to evolve. They have created a completely different album that is still distinctly Deerhoof.
Despite the shift from The Runners Four, the songs in Friend Opportunity still hold up and add to Deerhoofs extensive back-catalog. Whereas The Runners Four relies more on jangled guitar chords, Friend Opportunity diversifies to include a stronger presence of keyboards and synthesizers. The guitars in Friend Opportunity tend to come in the form of stronger lead guitar lines. There is also more variation between the songs, fluctuating between more accessible indie rock and the band’s more experimental musical digressions. For example, the CD opens with the darker, minor-chorded melody with heavy keyboards in "thE PERfECt ME" and jumps right into the much more upbeat "+81." Later, the more-experimental "kidZ ARE SO SMAll" leads into the 60’s-esque pop "MAtChbOOk SEEkS MANiAC."
With Friend Opportunity, the band continues to add its own distinct sound to all aspects of the indie rock genre. Bassist Satomi Matsuzaki still provides the band’s trademark accented female vocals which are at times wispy and whimsy, at times more powerful. And of course, there are still the ambient background noises that work to enhance the songs.
The songs on Friend Opportunity also follow a more traditional structure and feature fewer discordant moments, opting for vocal melodies that follow the accompaniment more harmoniously. This might be considered a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who you talk to, as the purists might argue that the more cohesive songs detract from the band’s experimental nature. However, without musical evolution, the band would just put out the same album in different forms. Ultimately, accessibility does not come at the expense of experimentation, and the band does not lose its core; the songs just sound slightly more refined and tighter. Friend Opportunity is an eclectic mix between the catchy and the experimental that will not disappoint the die-hards but is also accessible enough to generate more fans.
Official site: http://deerhoof.killrockstars.com/
APA review of The Runners Four
Date Posted: 2/16/2007