There is an annoying habit shared by some west coast Americans: they will respond to a joke by saying ‘that’s hilarious’ instead of laughing. ‘Femejism’ is a title engineered to solicit that response. It seems to allude to humour without necessarily making you smile.
And that is, in many ways, what the second album from Deap Vally does. More consistently, though, ‘Femejism’ makes you headbang, pout and want to go to bed with the wrong person. From the moment Royal Jelly swaggers into view it’s clear that Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards mean business, and that business is obnoxious, inebriated and potentially unaccountable.
This is particularly well realised on lead tracks Gonnawanna and Smile More, both of which could be modern classics if they didn’t appear to run out of ideas around their respective middle eights.
Elsewhere, Turn it Off and Post Funk also carry off a high degree of musical ingenuity while never removing the listener from the filthy rock club they stumbled into at the start.
There’s a lot to like about this record. It’s just a little one-note at times. The best of its ilk - offerings from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the White Stripes or Yeah Yeah Yeahs (whose guitarist, Nick Zinner, produced this album) - manage to diversify without undermining the essential hardness of the rock. But when a switch of tone does occur here, on Critic, it feels whimsical and throwaway. It doesn’t actually broaden the emotional palette.
One reason for this might well be the format itself. A curious phenomenon with rock duos is that there often appears to be a fixation with filling out the sound and making everything as heavy as possible. Think Royal Blood, the Black Keys and, to a lesser extent, the aforementioned White Stripes. But it needn’t be this way.
Ultimately, though, if you like bad women playing hard rock, ‘Femejism’ has something for you. It's Thelma and Louise dominating a fuzz pedal, and that is better than most other things.
Deap Vally Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed September 21 2016 - BRIGHTON Concorde 2
Click here to compare & buy Deap Vally Tickets at Stereoboard.com.
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
