When Jason Balla sings "Everyone I know is breaking hearts tonight" in "Dog Days", the lead track on the new Dehd album, it's a joyous affirmation of something messy taking place. That the song sounds like it was put together on the spot only adds to its power. The skills of Dehd -- Emily Kempf, Eric McGrady, and Jason Balla -- are such that what seems spontaneous is likely the result of a great deal of care in composition and production. Which is to say that Dog Days is such a smart reaffirmation of the strengths of this band that the record seems almost too perfect.
There's no place for a cynical asshole like me when the music is this appealing. I don't need irony, or clever chord changes, really; I can dig something like this and spin it all summer long. "Mood Ring" struts on verses and soars on choruses, while "Necklace" imagines a ramble written by Beck in the style of Nirvana. "Don't Look Down" is so damn catchy that it's infectious, while "Shake" injects the faintest hint of JAMC into the delivery of the tune's considerable riffs. Everything here is wildly enjoyable, enough that a listener sort of wonders why only Dehd are making albums like this in 2024.
Dehd continue to stake out their own unique territory. I can hear things here from past alt-rockers, of course, but this trio have a knack for creating something fresh out of the familiar. There's an immediacy here in these tracks that is just joyous, even on the rare down-tempo number. In the press materials for this record, Jason Balla says of "Light On" that the song "is a candle in the window, a light to guide someone back home in case they were trying to find it." Heck, I feel that about every track here!
Poetry by Dehd is out now via Fat Possum
[Photo: Jacob Consenstein]