Deer Tick: Emotional Contracts (ATO Records)

In many ways, Providence, Rhode Island band Deer Tick don’t seem like the most commercial prospect. Forgettable moniker, four average-looking, not remotely cool guys playing old-school rock n’ roll… what could be more meh? However, Emotional Contracts’ attachment to such aesthetic values as sincerity, melody, song structure and feel seems quietly revolutionary in 2023. Legendary Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann doesn’t produce just anyone, and at its best, the record's hooky ‘Tom Petty fronts the Stones / Big Star / E Street Band’ vibe really connects.

There will always be a space in rock n’ roll for intriguing weirdos and cocky vocalists with mad clothes and interesting drug problems. However, it’s refreshing to see a band who are all about the tunes. We are in Bruce-land here for sure, the record – their eighth studio album in nearly 20 years - has a defiantly working-class, ‘Work your arse off all week and drown your sorrows at the weekend’ vibe. There’s nothing arty or obscure here, the songs are full of regular guys with big hearts who keep getting knocked down and are determined to keep getting up (a very relatable concept right now in these late-capitalist end times).

Around half these tunes stick in the head instantly – Fridmann has captured a great rhythm guitar sound and the vocal melodies of rockers and ballads alike are designed for singing along with, several pints in. And like many a night out, it begins full of energy, raucously... but as time passes and the drinks pile up, it gets increasingly introspective, even maudlin – before ending with nine-minute depression epic The Real Thing, a howl into the abyss if ever you’ve heard one.

Highlights include opening rocker If I Try To Leave, whose use of the five-string, open G tuning that Keith Richards made famous instantly gives it that ragged, Stonesy, Exile on Main Street vibe. Like Exile, it’s rough, ragged and swings like hell, with a rhythmic push-and-pull from the drums that adds tension and forward momentum. Add ace harmonies and piano and you have a ballsy banger. Running From Love is a slow, classic-sounding, soul-inflected ballad that arrived in a dream (literally). Once In A Lifetime marries a funky bass breakdown to Byrdsian country guitar jangle and those tried and tested elements, handclaps and ‘Ooh la la la’ backing vocals, what’s not to like?!

Moody ballads My Ship and A Light Can Go Out In the Heart both burn slowly and hit the spot, the latter boasting some of the album’s best singing from singer / songwriter John Joseph McCauley III (great name!). This is appealingly melancholy stuff, suitable for a good old wallow. And aforementioned closer The Real Thing is a sparse, spacious meditation on surviving life’s lows somehow, with some heart-breaking one-liners ("I guess I settle for half of what I need…"). A martial drumbeat adds to the tension as the tune gradually builds to a crescendo, with the vocals sounding ever more ragged and desperate and guitar feedback adding dissonant menace. Then it fades out with simple, stark piano chords. Phew.

Other tunes are less memorable: Grey Matter is a decent-enough rocker but its comedy stadium rock ending is its best bit; and Forgiving Ties sounds like a shotgun marriage between two completely different songs – an appealing verse is bumped out of the way by an overused, poppy chorus that seems to be aiming too obviously for radio airplay. Disgrace has a pleasing swirlingly organ-led groove that’s E Street Band via mid 60s Dylan, but not much else.

Most of these songs hit the mark. But the overall impression is that they would sound even better live, where the impact of the record’s emotion, dynamics and great big singalong melodies would be multiplied many times over by the involvement of a crowd keen to listen and let off some steam. 4/5