The album art for Speedy Ortiz's Foil Deer

Speedy Ortiz

Foil Deer

Speedy Ortiz isn’t consistently edgy on Foil Deer, but they remain consistently on the edge of what’s possible with alternative rock. Foil Deer shows the band evolving and staking their claim as the leader of the indies.

In the realm of the weird alternative indie rock, there’s Speedy Ortiz and then there’s… well, there’s a lot of others, but Speedy Ortiz is great. In a lot of ways, they remind me of the Velvet Underground or Patti Smith, but with a few modern twists.

It’s actually way too easy to throw around the indie rock or alternative labels around these days, because Speedy Ortiz is much more punk like. But not punk in the way that a lot of us recognize punk — the big, brash guitars and fast-paced breakneck speeds — but the subversive sort of punk.

If you like Mother, Mother, but wish they were just a little bit weirder these days, or think that punk music is lacking in originality these days, Speedy Ortiz should be one of your first stops. Chock full of huge riffs and just-slightly-unsettling tonal ranges, Foil Deer is an album worth listening to again and again and again.