Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs. Evil

In the battle of Deerhoof vs. Evil, their 11th studio album, the art-rock quartet again challenges pop conventions with convincing results. Wrought with signature dark tones, layered guitars and unorthodox song structures, the album serves as yet another uncompromising showcase of Deerhoof’s diverse talents.

Plinking synths give way to an infectious guitar riff on opener “Qui Dorm, Només Somia,” before an abrupt rhythm shift brings the focus to Satomi Matsuzaki’s mesmerizing vocals, while “No One Asked to Dance” contrasts flamenco guitars with processed synth sounds. This instrumental dynamism is representative of Deerhoof vs. Evil as a whole—a playful but demanding original, characterized by nothing so much as unpredictability.

Beyond their generally idiosyncratic style, there are some classic Deerhoof signifiers here. “Behold a Marvel in the Darkness” and “Super Duper Rescue Heads!” both lean heavily on simplistic, repetitive lyrics, the former pitting its hook—“What is this thing called love?”—against John Dieterich’s bombastic guitar. The latter, with its irresistibly haunting melody, is the album’s most accessible track and hints at Deerhoof’s potential as a more pop-oriented entity.

The album, then, serves not as a war on evil but a study in dualities: dissonance and harmony, acoustics and electronics, pop music immediacy and avante-garde experimentalism. This last contrast is probably the most crucial—Deerhoof’s aesthetic is shaped to a large extent by their unwillingness to subvert their unique tendencies, but those tendencies can be disruptive to the cohesion of their work. While a Deerhoof that acquiesced to verse-chorus-verse formulae would be nowhere near as interesting, it would also be considerably less frustrating.

That said, Deerhoof vs. Evil provides evidence that experimental music can be both hard-hitting and intricate, intentionally dissonant and smartly designed; in their battle against evil, Deerhoof is decidedly victorious.