The Hard Quartet delight with their self-titled debut

When it comes to indie/Americana supergroup The Hard Quartet, that dictum doesn’t hold so much as a drop of water. This debut LP was undoubtedly, aurally, a blast to make, and it’s no less a blast to listen to. That’s perhaps unsurprising when you have alternative music royalty in every corner. The headline act is former Pavement honcho Stephen Malkmus, who has been uncharacteristically unprolific on the recorded music front these past few years. He’s joined by musician’s musician Matt Sweeney, Cairo Gang frontman Emmett Kelly, and ubiquitous drummer Jim White (who continues a great 2024 after the Dirty Three’s Love Changes Everything).

Malkmus’ slacker persona belies a hard-working, restless mind, but for fans of takin ‘er easy, he blesses us with some blissful, woozy tunes. The crunchy, chewy “Earth Hater” is reminiscent of Real Emotional Trash (the man’s most criminally underrated release). The tone is pure garage scuzz, but the guitar lines fold in on one other unexpectedly, zigging and zagging, as though each of White’s jazzy fills sends them off in another direction. Atop all that is the singer in enjoyably oblique mode, tumbling his way through lines like “Better be the seventh Bardo, I do not know / The archetype of the narc is eternal.” Right on, Steve!

Throwing it back further is the lovely “Heel Highway”, which could serve as a successor to Pavement classic “Type Slowly”. The guitars and harmonies could hardly be warmer; one of the boys snatches a solo here and there, then they roll back into a comfortable groove. The finest songs on The Hard Quartet are just as tight as they need to be and not a turn tighter. Hearing Malkus strain just-about-successfully for the high notes on the chorus is all part of the charm.

While he’s the bonafide indie A-lister of the group, this is by no means the Malkmus show, and Matt Sweeney – heard lately alongside Bonnie Prince Billy on their second collaborative album Superwolves – takes the spotlight for two particularly satisfying cuts. “Rio”, the lead single, is a gorgeous slice of retro rock, played downtempo yet layered with of ideas and details, especially in Jim White’s artfully virtuosic drumming. “Killed By Death” is another highlight, weary and rootsy, full of gorgeous southern fried licks. Sweeny’s lyricism is unsurprisingly significantly less verbose, and the wounded vulnerability in his occasionally croaky voice is a fittingly sincere counterpoint to the snarky word salad we get elsewhere.

What’s impressive about The Hard Quartet, though, is how little the overall effect is like that of a side project. They’ve put in the work, even if they don’t always want to be caught doing so. Some of the band’s best moments see them kick out the jams altogether, like on early highlight “Renegade”. A punky, sneering sprint with all four members whacking up the gain and clambering over each other for attention. “Action For Military Boys” is a blast, too: a grab bag of a song, it has a mishmash, committee-like feel to its multiple parts, only this committee is comprised of collaborative artists on the same page, supporting each other’s ideas: dudes being dudes, basically.

Is it on the baggy side at 52 minutes? Sure. There’s a shagginess to some of the tracks here, and a producer without skin in the game might have taken a pair of shears to the record, but that would be tantamount to criminal damage. The Hard Quartet is like four suburban dads starting a garage band on a whim, only with prime beef musicians and a huge label behind them, and if that’s not charming in this day and age, nothing is.