Speedy Ortiz give themselves a clever makeover on Twerp Verse

If you’ve followed this four-piece out of Massachusetts since their inception, the steady growth they’ve shown as a band shouldn’t be lost on you. Way back in 2013, when they released their aforementioned debut, Speedy Ortiz piqued immediate interest with their blend of big ultra fuzzed-out riffs and spindly, needly guitar work, and the loud-soft dynamic that the two elements naturally birthed. Think a mix between noise rock behemoths Dinosaur Jr. and alt-rock heroes Pavement, with a healthy dose of discordant melody thrown in, and you’re in the right ballpark. It wasn’t just the band’s sound that stuck out though; their singer and sole songwriter Sadie Dupuis caught the attention just as much. She had a crafty way with words, her lyrics revealing and cryptic at the same time, full of substance (Dupuis now holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst). They were delivered with a delicate sneer, a voice that sounded as if it was full of pain but that could dish it out just as well.

Two years later, on the critically acclaimed Foil Deer, the band dialled down the fuzz a few notches, and the song compositions became intricate and angular, and had more of a spiked bite. This was as much a result of Dupuis taking more time to write, and the band taking more time to record, as it was the injection of new guitarist Devin McKnight’s pointed jagged guitar work; it weaved in and out of Dupuis’ sharp lyrics, the two elements forming a menacing slithering serpent, fangs and venom primed, ready to strike when necessary.

And so, with the release of Twerp Verse, we come face to face with that serpent once more. But this one is in a new skin, just as prickly, but easier on the eye, and its demeanour isn’t as combustible as it previously was; while fangs and venom are still at the ready, their employed in a more selective fashion, saved for only the realest of scum in Dupuis’ world. She’s experienced her fair share, those “sick pups” that consider a “no means alright”, that have “siphoned out the feeling” from anything that could’ve been good. Whether Dupuis’ spits barbed words like “you’re not my bro” and “I don’t wanna love you”, or she’s “breaking your furniture up with steel-toed boots”, her attacks are fierce and merciless, geared for only one thing: to systematically break you down and put you in your place.

Her taunts are packaged in a much more mainstream and bubbly sound on Twerp Verse, though. It’s a definite departure from their earlier, often dark and uneasy, work. With the indie-pop-centric stylings of new guitarist Andy Molholt – their third in as many albums – and Dupuis’ recent foray into the pop world herself (as Sad13), songs are built fully around bright splashes of synths, like “Lucky 88” and “You Hate the Title”, or have little flourishes of it, like in “I’m Blessed”.

Structurally, things aren’t as jagged anymore, with sparse verses either chugging or drifting along then exploding into meaty chunky choruses, like in “Buck Me Off”, “Backslidin’” and “Lean in When I Suffer”.

This is the most listener-friendly and accessible that Speedy Ortiz have ever been. But the band hasn’t left behind their heavy grunge sound, despite what many long-time fans will think when they listen to Twerp Verse. They’ve just given their sound a clever makeover, and taken the next step in their evolution as a band by doing so. “The new professionals have got a plan”, announces Dupuis in “Sport Death”. And some plan it is.