Offend Maggie

If Offend Maggie doesn't have quite have that idiot's glee it's nevertheless quite a riot. [Nov 2008, p.94]

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.

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.

Offend Maggie continues Deerhoof's winning streak and displays a band running at peak performance. [Nov 2008, p.154]

Offend Maggie revels in that tease between balls-out western rock and Matsuzaki's playful but resolutely coy vocal patterns.

Offend 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]

Tastefully 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.

More expansive than "Friend Opportunity," not quite as sprawling as "The Runners Four," Offend Maggie is among Deerhoof's most balanced albums.

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.

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.

The inspired moments of sunny pop and weirdo noise seem effortless, but so does all the aimless jamming.

It shouldn’t offend, but it might be slow to engage.

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.

All the parts are in place on Offend Maggie, Deerhoof’s beguiling, characteristically uproarious new album.

It's nice to hear the band still finding ways to broaden even its own experimental spirit. [Fall 2008, p.74]

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.

Despite the fact that Offend Maggie is, in some ways, a “nothing new” addition to Deerhoof’s canon, it’s also one of their best.

Remarkably, there has not been a dip in quality: simply put, Deerhoof is as strangely consistent as they are consistently strange.

Maggie 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.

There are no "eureka" moments on Offend Maggie but plenty of small epiphanies.

Deerhoof offset the cutesiness with fuzzed-out riffs and brawny beats that even AC/DC fans could dig.

Ultimately rewarding for indie enthusiasts up for a challenge, Offend might leave more pedestrian listeners scratching their heads.

Offend Maggie isn't a huge breakthrough for Deerhoof, but it's a step toward coherence with which few fans should have a problem.

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.

In short, this is not only more like it--this is possibly Deerhoof’s best album, lingering nostalgia issues with Reveille aside.