Speedy Ortiz have done great things with the extended play format. 2012’s excellent Sports foreshadowed the big statement that their full-length debut, Major Arcana, would make in 2013. 2014’s Real Hair EP, in between Major and 2015’s Foil Deer, pressing the point that Speedy were to be taken seriously even further. Each of their EPs feature completely new material and usually stand alone as solid little gems. Their latest output, Foiled Again, switches up the routine a bit and acts as an epilogue to 2015’s Foil Deer by serving “Puffer” two ways in addition to a pair of outtakes.
To some extent, “Puffer” was the oddity of Foil Deer, trading hyper, zig-zagging guitars for lurching tension. Singer and Guitarist Sadie Dupuis wrote the song while swimming at Puffer’s Pond in Amherst, where she would listen to Kelis and compose tunes inspired by the “Bossy” queen. “Puffer” was the result, though as she told Pitchfork, it “came out a little more like krautrock” than R&B. Therefore, perhaps it is an act of fate that “Puffer” would be reborn as two slinky, club-ready bangers, perfect for the crew who has always wanted to hear Speedy at their local dance institution.
The first rework is directed by Doomtree collective member Lazerbeak and features Lizzo, with whom Dupuis (as Sad13) previously collaborated for the Google Docs-sponsored song “Basement Queens.” “Puffer” a la Lazerbeak isolates Dupuis’ vocals and places them over smooth dings, snaps, and bells. The track drops for Dupuis’ most complicated verse, the sing-song “Poseying in prose again, Mount Toby friends are make pretend.” Lizzo chimes in throughout the song before offering her own verse near the end, bringing a spark of life to a track that was otherwise becoming forgettably hypnotic.
The Open Mike Eagle remix is built upon the “So I’m the god of the liars” line, with the occasional whisper of “Poseying in prose again.” The remix could work well as a meditation soundtrack, allowing the listeners’ minds to melt away while they consider what being the god of the liars truly means. It’s an underwhelming way to end an EP, but also allows the two original tracks to truly shine.
The title of opener “Death Note” is an allusion to a Japanese manga series about a notebook that kills anyone whose name is written within its pages. Speedy Ortiz leave the supernatural references at the start; the notebooks mentioned in “Death Note” are tools to work through melancholy. There’s an undeniable heaviness to the track, especially when Dupuis seems to corner the unknown subject and pleads, “How often can I say it until you believe?/They were all love letters/These are all love letters to me.” “A death note can be [a] kind of love letter to yourself, “ Dupuis has explained. This paradoxical logic nails, lyrically, what makes Speedy Ortiz so special: their ability to flit between worlds of darkness and light.
“Emma O” continues Foiled Again’s transition into the dark side, especially once one considers that Emm-O is the Japanese judge of the dead. It’s a slow tale of forced time spent with a lover and the ambivalent feelings that follow. There’s a wallowing bit of distortion near the middle of the song like a gray cloud over a cartoon character, just a perceptible reminder that the song is dark. Shortly after comes the line “Your 27, Emma-O you read the masters but you still don’t know about love” which manages to be heartbreaking while also eerily resembling a Belle and Sebastian lyric. Like “Death Note,” which ends with the reassurance that “These are all love letters to me,” “Emma O” ends with the aphorism “I never wanna come for you again/I only want your comfort.” Speedy Ortiz are careful about which lyrics they choose to turn into mantras, and the brief punch offered by those in “Death Note” and “Emma O” are more enriching than “Puffer.”
Foiled Again is a mixed bag. On one hand, there are two great tracks that, for whatever reason, didn’t make it onto Foil Deer and are now seeing the light of day. Then there are the two remixes, one of which is considerably stronger than the other. Combining these four songs results in a strange listen; the two new songs could stand on their own as singles, same with the remixes. Nonetheless, Foiled Again confirms that Speedy Ortiz are exploring new territory, and it will be exciting to see how they break their own molds next.
