Deer Tick
Deer Tick, Vol. 1
Release Date: Sep 15, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Partisan
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Album Review: Deer Tick, Vol. 1 by Deer Tick
Very Good, Based on 6 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Previously a band you could reliably find kicking up a roots-punk ruckus at the bottle’s bottom, Rhode Island’s wild cats assumed reflective positions on 2013’s Negativity. Back after a pause for breath (and parenting duties), they play to both strengths on a double-album split between introspective and intemperate tendencies, with welcome bleed between Volumes. Through its folksy acoustic front, Vol 1 brims with passion.
Based on rating 8/10
It's been four long years since the release of Deer Tick's 2013 LP Negativity, an intermission in which lead singer and primary lyricist John McCauley admits that the band considered calling it quits. A lot changed in those four years: each member of the band got married; McCauley had a daughter; and Donald Trump controls the world's largest military — what a ride. Thankfully, the band's penchant for writing inimitable folk-punk (or is it punk-folk?) has not waned since their last release. Let's be clear: Deer Tick Vol. 1 and Deer ….
Based on rating 6.6/10
In spirit, Deer Tick aren’t much removed from the perennial weekend warrior bands you can always find at frat parties and local bars in college towns across the country. In fact, that’s always been part of Deer Tick’s charm. For better or worse, the Providence, R.I. quartet has remained about as unpretentious as rock bands come, even as it’s gotten tighter and more seasoned.
Based on rating B-
Tom Waits. Bruce Springsteen. Guns N’ Roses. The list of artists who’ve released two albums on the same day is short, and the list of artists who’ve actually pulled it off is even shorter. The latest prospective initiate into that exclusive club is Deer Tick, the sometimes twangy ….
Based on rating 6/10
Releasing a double album is a high risk/high reward proposition. It could be so conceptually strong that it positions the band as true visionaries (see: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness), or tell a story so sweeping it could never fit on one disc (see: The Wall), or cement a band’s place within a particular genre (see: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below). Or, it could be a complete and utter disaster (see: Metallica & Lou Reed’s atrocious Lulu).
Opinion: Excellent
Releasing two albums on the same day is the sort of grandiose rock-star move that few dare attempt and even fewer pull off. So it comes as a surprise to see a band as modest as Deer Tick join the likes of Guns 'N' Roses and Bruce Springsteen with the simultaneous release of "Deer Tick Vol. 1" and "Deer Tick Vol. 2." However, the closest historical precedent here isn't "Use Your Illusion" — it's "In Your Honor," the Foo Fighters double album that featured separate acoustic and electric discs.
'Deer Tick, Vol. 1'
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