speedy ortiz – no below

despite coming to these guys incredibly late in the game, s/o to patrick @ XL for putting me onto the Major Arcana LP, I’m compelled, perhaps instructed from above, to write about the song “No Below”. excuse the hyperbole, but it’s probably the most Elliott Smith-sounding thing not by Elliott Smith that I’ve heard in a long time; that probably sounds weird, but seriously, strip the song back a little bit, listen to it intently, it’s not much of a leap to add it to the canon of the troubled singer, who would have been 44 earlier this month.

Of course, that’s not to discredit Speedy Ortiz, ’cause that’s only the initial thing about listening to this band, this song; sadie dupuis’ vocals are fragile, arresting and most of all, unforgiving. the record itself a great expanse, with “no below” figuring as the kind of centrepiece, a saddened core that is hard to ignore.

P.S. Confession: I’ve never found a hook built around “better off being dead” so sing-along and fist-pumpingly catchy before.