Description
Label Review.
2019 album.
Our Overview.
Chicago trio Dehd are back with their blinding new album ‘Water’. The bands third studio album released on Fire Talk Records, serves as both a funeral and more appropriately, a baptism, for what comes after exiting a partnership. Love is everyday magic. Thats the impression you get listening to ‘Water’, the new album by Chicago trio Dehd. Veterans of Chicagos increasingly fruitful DIY scene, the tight knit band: Jason Balla (Ne-Hi and Earring) Emily Kempf (Vail and formerly with Lala Lala) and drummer Eric McGrady share a strange and inexplicable chemistry. Love rises up into the atmosphere like steam off a summer sidewalk and makes you wild.
Love breaks your heart and you consider yourself lucky for it. Like water itself, it surrounds us, it supports us; its what were made of. It takes the shape of its container. The music is hazy and reverb-drenched, a scuzzy and hyped-up take on surf rock that could only come from the Third Coast. Its all animated by the red-lining feel-good spirit of the Velvet Underground’s Loaded and the breezy melodicism of C86-era indie rock, with a dash of the Cramps spooky hop bop courtesy of McGradys locomotive drumming.Its a clear-eyed look at the wild nature of everyday life thats been spun up in sugary sweet melodies and scratched-crystal sounds.
More than anything, its the embodiment of Dehds Modeus Operandi from the start: As Kempf puts it, “Work with what you have and make it magical.” Dehd practice a sentiment often preached but rarely implemented--serve the song, and cut out anything extra. Case and point in drummer Eric McGrady, who’s minimal snare and floor tom set-up provide a pulse for bandmates Emily Kempf and Jason Balla to tack on chugging basslines and wiggling guitar parts, respectively. The simplicity in their instrumentation gives balance to their songs, paving the way for standout vocal performances from Kempf on songs such as “On My Side,” “Lucky,” and “Sunbeat,” while Balla’s cool-headed delivery lets you appreciate the lazier, sun-drenched moments of coming to terms with heartache.
While the band isn’t reinventing the wheel, they do have the coolest ride. The absence of excess brings forward a soundtrack to a broken AC summer, windows down, blowing sweat into your hairline. Dehd has something for the believers, the non-believers, and those in between. When fall rolls around, we’ll all curse the stars and cry as we try to hold onto the magic of summer, but with ‘Water’ to remind us of the simple pleasures, I guess we don’t have to.