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Album reviews Music

Speedy Ortiz – Major Arcana

Rating: NNNN


Sadie Dupuis is becoming the new poster girl for the 90s indie rock revival. But her band, Speedy Ortiz – named after a minor character from the alt comic Love And Rockets – is far more than just another group of Pavement-worshipping 20-somethings.

Rather than merely rehashing sounds of yesteryear, Speedy Ortiz add modern rock ‘n’ roll strokes to their take on fuzzy noise pop. Guitar and bass lines escalate from lackadaisical to screeching breakdowns, all running overtop boisterous, grungy drums. It’s Dupuis’s vocals, however, that differentiate the band from like-minded revivalists. Her anti-pop lyrics are full of poetic nuance, as on standout No Below. In the chorus she hurls, “I was better off just being dead” before quietly following up with “but I didn’t know you yet.” It’s the perfect summer anthem for indoor emo types who might prefer lazy days with Camus to frolicking on the beach.

Top track: No Below

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