The Death of Speedy Ortiz & Cop Kicker... Forever

Speedy Ortiz

In celebration of Speedy Ortiz's 10-year existence, main brain Sadie Dupuis and Carpark Records saw fit to compile and re-release the project's earliest recordings. Dupuis' first album (The Death of Speedy Ortiz) and EP (Cop Kicker) consist of bedroom recordings that are frankly quite rough around the edges, although it is impressive that Dupuis alone is responsible for all the performances, recording, and production. Take it from me, that is incredibly daunting. I have not heard anything pre Major Arcana - the band's critical breakout - so I was interested to hear how this ball got rolling.

I was happy to hear that a lot of Speedy Ortiz's characteristics that draw me to their music are still very much here. It really shows how big of an influence Sadie Dupuis has on the band's sound direction. The jangly and sour guitar riffs, heavy fuzz guitar passages, and just a general messiness that makes me feel like I'm teetering precariously over the edge; it was there right from the very start so it seems. By nature of these being home recordings, that messiness is enhanced greatly, very much to the detriment of my enjoyment. The performances are a little too loose in a lot of cases, especially on the drumming front. Sometimes a healthy push and pull between instruments can make things come to life and remind you that there are humans actually playing this, but the extent to which all these instruments don't really line up or lock in is quite distracting.

Now these songs, from my understanding, have been pretty much unaltered since they were self-released back in 2011. I think it was admirable that Sadie Dupuis wanted to re-release these songs with very little alterations in order to preserve the Speedy Ortiz timeline. With that being said though, the production and mixing on this record is quite rough. Very rarely do instruments mesh together. Everything just sticks out in a very jarring way. So, it's quite difficult for me to connect with these songs because I'm not getting that sense of musical harmony. And I don't mean harmony in the sense that it is melodic or happy sounding, but rather that all these elements come together to create something more.

Despite the rough presentation, there are still a few moments that stick out to me. Phish Phood is quite ominous with it's sour guitar riff and some buzzing metal bass strings that create quite the doom filled backdrop. There is a brief spot where the chords switch and it feels like sunlight is peering in only for the doom to return even heavier mere moments later. Necronomicon has a very similar vibe with it's solo distorted bass notes and Dupuis' monotone vocal delivery. The song starts to build out with the addition of piano and I think some plucked banjo - I could be wrong but it has quite a lot of twang. The ending of this track is one of the few moments where all the instrumentation plays nicely together, adding a solid drum performance, some electric guitar leads, and some vocal harmonies. The song finishes in a very different place from where it started and I find that progression to be quite satisfying. On Doomsday, Dupuis delivers a very melancholic track, and also delivers an exaggeratedly fragile vocal performance. She sounds so incredibly close to Karen O, I can picture this song fitting in on a more lo-fi Gold Lion.

As it turns out, the bonus tracks are where I found the most fruit. Let's Get Evicted, Summon It and Deady wound up being my favourite songs thanks to stronger production, mixing, and performances. I love Let's Get Evicted's sluggish pace and spacious atmosphere. I also love the use of the cello which adds a very interesting metallic quality to the song. Summon It has a very interesting dynamic between it's two main sections. The calmer parts feature a nice tom drum groove, some creatively stuttering vocals, and an almost surf-like guitar melody and tone. The other section busts in with this super fuzzy guitar lead that takes up almost all the space in the mix, along with crashing cymbals. Lastly, we have Deady which is the closest this album gets to perfection on all fronts, rivalling some of the best moments on Major Arcana. I love the tone of the drums; roomy, boomy, and the performance is perhaps Dupuis' most confident. I also love the thick, fuzz-soaked guitars and the catchy vocal melody in the chorus.

I think there's a lot of cool ideas on this record and it was really cool to learn just how instrumental Sadie Dupuis is to the sound and tone of Speedy Ortiz. Unfortunately though, the technical execution acted as a significant barrier preventing me from really wanting to get into these songs. I'm aware of the songwriting power that Dupuis has and with slightly better production and mixing, I bet a lot of these songs could really hit. Either way, it's really cool that Speedy Ortiz fans can now get their hands on the earliest recordings which were previously only available on a small run of casettes or strictly digital. It is especially nice that the bells and whistles added on which were previously unreleased are pretty great bonuses as well.