Runners Four, The

Oh Hoof how I love thee. The Runner Four is their 7th full length, and is yet another step Deerhoof has taken towards merging spastic dissonant grooves with pure pop. Much less of a studio beast, this record is a great representation of their powerful live performances. This is a “rock” album crafted only the way Deerhoof can. Multilayered guitarwork, powerful driving bass and Mitch Mitchell-like drum stomping with simple cute vocals over top. Some points of the record leans them more towards pop and others finds them churning demons in the dark corner of your mind. All tracks cool, PLAY!!! -tHE bAWD oF eUPHONy

1**(2:32) Right away a bevy of pulsing guitars fire away. Vocals enter with no sign of drums
anywhere. Upbeat yet devious. Great dissonant ending. Love it!
2*(2:17) Low churning, dirty guitar melody into slow riff. Steady and popish
3**(3:45) Awesome bass and drum groove. Catchy chorus, very cool guitar and keyboard
breakdown. One of my favs. Great track!
4 (2:15) Poppy happy song. Acoustic guitar into steady rocker. Nice guitar riffs.
5*(2:16) Keyboard riff mimicked by the guitar then steady romp takes place. Poppy.
6**(2:55) Moody Male vocals (Greg?) with cool guitar lines. Nice arrangement! Cool.
Somehow this song reminds me of George Harrison? Weird!
7**(2:53) Hello riff! Swingy and rocking. Pretty steady and straight with a nice groove.
8**(4:07) Great solo guitar into riff. Marching band beat enters. Dance with Deerhoof! Gets
freaky and weird. Love it!!!
9**(2:40) Steady build with vox. Great swingy riff! Cool! Holy explosion later on!
10*(3:20) Steady pulse with fuzzy bass and male vox.
11**(2:00) Dub Bass line, cool drop groove. Awesome stomp with free guitar and keys!!
Mostly instrumental, vox enter later on.
12*(3:59) Acoustic Guitar ballad. Poppy and sweet with a twist. Freedom rock?
13**(4:37) Slow R&B style groove. Fugazi? Awesome explosions of guitar. Great riff. A fav!
14**(2:05) Very cool and strange. Awesome low moody groove. Another favorite.
15**(2:15) Dissonant guitar into upbeat off-pop groove. Gets noisey then speeds up. RAD!
16**(2:15) Casio ballad. Moody guitar and male vox. Very odd. Peppercorn? Cool
17*(1:23) Weird sounds, then off free jazz groove swirls. Sounds like the Curtains. No vox
18*(2:12) Solo vox into moody pop groove. Nice. Catchy
19**(2:25) Upbeat guitar lines into rad groove. Rocks out!
20**(3:57) Noisey guitar. Heavy bass and drums with sharp stops. Rad and rockin’