Offend Maggie
- Deerhoof
- Band Name: Deerhoof
- Record Label: Kill Rock Stars
- Release Date: Oct 7, 2008
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Nearly every tune sports a hummable melody--many of them sublime--which makes this album one of the more accessible entries in Deerhoof's willfully strange catalog.
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Nearly all the songs on Offend Maggie find different ways to achieve a surprisingly full, evocative union of Deerhoof's pop sense and experimental whims.
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90Despite the fact that Offend Maggie is, in some ways, a "nothing new" addition to Deerhoof's canon, it's also one of their best.
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85Tastefully fashionable, Saunier's truly grandiose drumming bits serve to keep the listener well entertained while never flagging as the band's backbone; Dieterich, now bolstered by Rodriguez, sharpens the material with catchy guitar riffs; and Matsuzaki's well-timed and particularly soft voice provides plenty of flavor. Never conventional, bordering on the impractical, the formula nevertheless works.
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Offend Maggie's mellowness is not a lessening of Deerhoof's strangeness. In fact, the emotional intensity of these songs may be even more pronounced than in songs from the past.
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In short, this is not only more like it--this is possibly Deerhoof's best album, lingering nostalgia issues with Reveille aside.
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The best way to approach this band is to stop comparing them to the usual reference points--instead, it's far more rewarding to accept Offend Maggie as a land of its own making, something to be indulged, explored and, finally, cherished.
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80The surprises keep coming. [Nov 2008, p.108]
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80If Offend Maggie doesn't have quite have that idiot's glee it's nevertheless quite a riot. [Nov 2008, p.94]
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More expansive than "Friend Opportunity," not quite as sprawling as "The Runners Four," Offend Maggie is among Deerhoof's most balanced albums.
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Offend Maggie continues Deerhoof's winning streak and displays a band running at peak performance. [Nov 2008, p.154]
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Offend Maggie is head-spinning bliss from beginning to end, and proves that the quartet are the best prog-rock post-punk Afro-Oriental art-pop folk-jazz band in the world.
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So, Offend Maggie doesn't offer much in way of change. As cynical as the times we live in might be, that could be taken as a polite rebuke, but it's not meant that way. They're a creative band.
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80There are no "eureka" moments on Offend Maggie but plenty of small epiphanies.
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80Remarkably, there has not been a dip in quality: simply put, Deerhoof is as strangely consistent as they are consistently strange.
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Though the sludgy abrasiveness of 1970s classic rock dominates, the influences, instruments and electronic sounds fly by at a dizzying pace.
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76Maggie balks at the chance to make your knees go wobbly, keeping its allure strictly intellectual and technical rather than hot-blooded. That ethos isn't going to win a lot of hugs and kisses from fans or non-fans, but Maggie never asks for more than a firm, professional handshake, the kind of appreciation it more than deserves.
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70Offend Maggie revels in that tease between balls-out western rock and Matsuzaki's playful but resolutely coy vocal patterns.
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It's nice to hear the band still finding ways to broaden even its own experimental spirit. [Fall 2008, p.74]
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Deerhoof offset the cutesiness with fuzzed-out riffs and brawny beats that even AC/DC fans could dig.
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It shouldn't offend, but it might be slow to engage.
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Offend Maggie isn't a huge breakthrough for Deerhoof, but it's a step toward coherence with which few fans should have a problem.
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70Offend Maggie is the sound of a group mind at work, deep in spontaneous collective play--but a kind of play taken very very seriously. As it should be. [Dec 2008, p.58]
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All the parts are in place on Offend Maggie, Deerhoof's beguiling, characteristically uproarious new album.
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New second guitarist Ed Rodriguez adds a nice sheen to John Dietrich's low end, drummer Greg Saunier's maniacal playing is its most metered yet, and singer Satomi Matsuzaki's singing and lyrics have matured.
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60The inspired moments of sunny pop and weirdo noise seem effortless, but so does all the aimless jamming.
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60Ultimately rewarding for indie enthusiasts up for a challenge, Offend might leave more pedestrian listeners scratching their heads.
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