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I keep dinging these LocalMusicBoston bands for having albums that don't live up to their live shows, but its my way of giving them their due while giving an honest impression of good-but-unspectacular albums. Speedy Ortiz won me over with their frantic, precise post-Nirvana thrash, a live show bristling with bottledup electric energy.
This EP's opener gives you your best taste of what to expect, with 90's dissonance, skitterey drumming and deft start-stop blasts of guitar noise. It's exciting, in that kind of "I'll be these guys are awesome live" kind of way. Good. Your instints are good. They are.
But then everything else sags by comparison, swaying instead of juking, riding Built to Spill bend and chime instead of more straightforward riffage. Which is fine, I just think their strongest suit is scalpelstorm aggression and its a shame not to see more of that here. The other exceptions are the infernal closing segments to Silver Spring and Suck buddies, which turn the backhanded Built to Spill comparison on its head, evoking the euphoric highs of the closing sections of songs like Some or Carry the Zero. Now just make one that closes like Kicked it in the Sun and we're good.
So if you like the 90's at its underground precision pretty noise best, you'll find a lot to like here. I just came in expecting too much. Who's fault is that? Stop being so good live, Boston 3.5/5
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