Shiraz Bhatti, Nic Gohl, Drew McBride and Kevin Fairbairn make up Chicago post-punk / indie pop quartet Deeper who release their latest album `Careful!` this month.
The album opens with `Build A Bridge` which shuffles along with some jagged guitar riffs and vocals that give the impression of fear or angst within the narrator. It may well tell of a dream or premonition encouraging the participant to heal their community but by the same token it could be something entirely different. We have a brief soundscape in `Heat Lamp` before `Glare` takes us on a faster paced journey where the vocals are initially shared in bite size slogans before joining in a kind of stream of conciseness over a steady drumbeat, leading bass line and occasional brass tones, a delightfully eclectic mix.
`Tele` has a more dreamlike electronic driven texture and seems to be a declaration of love. I really loved `Bite` which had that kind of enchanting edginess that only The Cure can generate along with hints of New Order. `Pilsen 4th` is another brief soundscape or musical interlude while `Sub` is a fairly introspective mid-tempo offering with some entrancing irregular rhythms.
`Fame` opens with a recorded segment which includes hand clapping and leads us into an eclectic quite spellbinding musical voyage with lyrics that seem to grow in intensity as the piece evolves. There was a slightly retro nigh on psychedelic feel to `Everynight` which had some fairly complex guitar chords sprinkled throughout while `Airplane Air` brought to mind a less dystopian version of The Normal`s `Warm Leatherette from the late seventies.
`devil-loc` appears to be a sixties musical effect device and said song seems to be either a one hundred and seventy-two second aural offering in praise of said device or maybe a composition produced on one. There was a kind of hypnotic consistency about `Dualbass` which sort of pulled me into its heart for the duration of the number.
This release closes with `Pressure` a song Nic Gohl wrote for his wife and longtime partner and it`s probably the most accessible track on the album. A fairly melodic ode of devotion.
`Careful!` was an album that needs a few listens to really attempt to understand it`s intricacies and nuances and even then, it`ll still leave you perplexed. I thought there were touches of The Cars, Devo`s diverseness and Talking Heads paranoia but Deeper have their own identity.
It`s an album that i`m sure I’ll return to again and again but not fully comprehend it`s beauty.
Rating 8 /10
