Four years after Negativity, an album less raw than its predecessors and decidedly more introspective, Deer Tick is back with not just one, but two albums! Charismatic leader John McCauley and crew show their acoustic side on Deer Tick Vol. 1 and their electric side on Deer Tick Vol. 2… When they came onto the scene in 2007 these youngsters from Providence, barely relieved of their acne problems, were reciting with great class the Rolling Stones equation Exile On Main Street period divided by Neil Young, with the addition of Dylan and Springsteen and the subtraction of Del Fuegos, over the square root of Green On Red, and, most importantly, the Replacements. Granted, such a profusion of references were a heavy load to bear, and sometimes maybe a little far-fetched, but they managed this heritage well enough to justify such an excessive name-dropping… And nothing has really changed since. Often lubricated with alcohol, McCauley’s voice − which sounds like a plantigrade with a cold − mixes with half-classic rock half alternative-country guitars of his henchmen to give these two bottles of the 2017 cuvée a rare and extremely efficient artistic form. No electro-this or vaporous-that, just unpretentious, good basic rock’n’roll… © MZ/Qobuz