Versions of Modern Performance

With clear priorities and unsaddled creative impulses, Horsegirl are the authoritative future of noise pop. With their help, we too can run free.

Truly there are no weak tracks on Versions of Modern Performance, where even the handful of instrumental snippets (“The Guitar is Dead 3” echoes Daydream Nation’s “Providence”) serve as transitions to some of the album’s most muscular songs. Over the course of the album, Horsegirl show they can tackle all manner of post-punk territory, while never losing focus on the value of a well timed hook or buried melody.

They’ve delivered a certain-to-be-beloved debut – one that separates itself from its peers.

Anti-glory's an easy in, but you'll need to retune your ears to Horsegirl's particular frequency before this debut reveals its full brilliance. [Summer 2022, p.79]

A layered, atmospheric, darkly playful headrush of a first offering.

‘Versions of Modern Performance’ is a gleaming window into a new generation of great American guitar bands.

Coming out of a decade where many bands decided to incorporate electronics (for better or worse) into their sounds, it is refreshing to hear the new generation of bands returning to more traditional rock instrumentation. Horsegirl not only does this, but does it well.

It’s very difficult to read anything even vaguely meaningful into lines like “while Emma eggs her head she looks the same” (World of Pots and Pans). It’s the only element of this album that serves as a reminder of its creators’ inexperience – the rest is a masterclass in a new kind of classic rock.

Versions of Modern Performance doesn’t just revive a certain sound; it revives the idea of mystery and tension in rock & roll.

The trio's debut album is rich in textural sophistication, carving hooks from fidgety harmonics and swooning whammy-bar abuse. [Jul 2022, p.86]

Over the course of their unabashedly DIY-sounding debut – whether that sound is merely an invocation rather than authentic, you can’t deny that it nails it – these songs walk the same line of art rock as Goo and Dirty-era Sonic Youth.

Compelling from its first note to its very last, the record presents a band who, yes, are still in their infancy, but clearly know who they are and what that sounds like.

Between the stylistic achievements that feel refreshing without over-referencing, the truly deadpan delivery on a coiled bed of noise, and (at last) some proper sequencing, Versions of Modern Performance is a smart record that prove Horsegirl to be the real deal.

For now, Horsegirl aren’t so much carrying the torch as they are keeping the pilot light lit, low and steady.

Steve Shelley and Lee Ranaldo were impressed enough to pitch in, helping form a warmly familiar yet still sometimes thrilling debut album. [Sep 2022, p.24]