The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet (Album Review)
Friday, 11 October 2024
Written by Jack Press
Photo: Atiba Jefferson
The Hard Quartet’s lineup reads like a Comic Con lineup for indie heads, bringing together Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, The Cairo Gang’s Emmett Kelly, Chavez’s Matt Sweeney, and Dirty Three’s Jim White. Reflecting its members’ wandering tastes, the supergroup’s self-titled debut is a sprawling buffet of decades and genres.
Opener Chrome Mess starts at the beginning: its fuzzed-up guitars, lo-fi vocals, and chaotic harmonies worship at the altar of subgenres from shoegaze and indie to slacker-rock and grunge.
Follow up Earth Hater runs the psychedelic tones of ‘70s pop-rock through an indie-fuzz machine, while Rio’s Song playfully interchanges rootsy riffing and mathy noodlin. The self-destructive Renegade takes you somewhere else entirely, landing with a thud of punky nihilism.
Heel Highway’s stoner-Americana kicks off a three song run of instant classics. It might share a title with a Motörhead song but Killed By Death is the Flaming Lips-esque Sunday morning soundtrack you’ve been searching for, while Hey feels like a brain-fizzing trip through ‘90s nostalgia.
When The Hard Quartet miss, though, they really miss. It Suits You’s rumbling drums and discordant riffs drift off into nowhere, and the insufferably neverending Six Deaf Rats fumbles the sort of folk-rock Bonny Doon do best. Thug Dynasty is straight up spreadable sandwich filler.
Mostly, though, ‘The Hard Quartet’ is just four friends having fun. Unshackled from the chains of their own legacies, Malkmus, Kelly, Sweeney, and White do whatever they want and, largely, they do it well.
The Hard Quartet Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
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