Deerhoof - Actually, You Can LP (Olive vinyl)

Actually, You Can is a genre-abundant record that uses technicolor vibrancy and arpeggiated muscularity to offer a vital shock from capitalism's purgatorial hold. Opener "Be Unbarred, O Ye Gates of Hell" literally storms the barricades, interpolating a Handel aria, a Maya Angelou essay, and a Catholic homily in which Christ descends into inferno to release its captive souls. "These days, to be a moral person is to be a criminal," clarifies Greg Saunier of the album's countercultural embrace of liberation. "That's the spirit we were trying to express: an angelic, glamorous prison bust."

That glamour comes replete with thrashing twin guitar assaults from Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich, and Saunier's tuned-up, hyperpop-via-nu metal snare bombast. "Scarcity is Manufactured," Actually, You Can's thesis, flips "La Bamba'' into uncharted time signatures; Rodriguez and Dieterich shred in and out of unison at a high speed scrub while Saunier's heavier-than-ever kit bashes in sync with Satomi Matsuzaki's fuzzed-out bass. She sings with a candy in her mouth, "I thought it was night, but it's day! It's every day at once! Behold my house of light! Bankruptor of the rainbow!" It's a condemnation of America's mundanity, replacing the narrative of inevitable violence with the real joy that's not being talked about.

For new listeners and decades-long devotees, Deerhoof's electrifying, generous approach to collaborative worldbuilding on Actually, You Can is an emboldening call to support our communities with renewed strength, infinite love, and the resilience to keep exploring.