Review Summary: Geese are totally unhinged and I'm here for it.
Geese are a New York rock band who straddle a range of sounds and genres that if you were to try to catagorise them, they’d probably best fit the labels of Art Punk or Post Punk, but really that oversimplifies it as their sound touches on quite an eclectic range of influences making them difficult to pigeonhole.
Coming into this album, I had an awareness of Geese, as they have a minor breakout with their last record, 3D Country, which got a lot of attention because of how unconventional it was for a modern rock record. However this new record feels spiritually a lot more punk rock – that’s not to say the tracks are fast, heavy, or aggressive, because they're not- but it does anarchistic feel to it with how it throws out conventional song-writing and structures. But main thing which attracts me to this album above all else is just how unhinged, frenetic, and idiosyncratic many of the songs are. The whole thing has this vibe to it like it’s the rantings of a person living on the fringes of society or someone experiencing a psychotic break.
That said, the lyricism here isn’t mindless nonsense, it’s enigmatic, often beautiful, and always interesting. The kind of lyrics that beg for repeat listens to try to extrapolate their meaning. It’s also worth mentioning the overall production and sound design on the record is top notch with Kenny Beats behind the booth producing it.
Starting off the tracklist is
Trinidad. It starts off quite low-key with jam rock guitar riffs and frontman Cameron Winters’s voice fading in, but leads to explosive moments where Cameron is screaming
"THERE’S A BOMB IN MY CAR" over and over again. A total chaotic and distressing line to be yelling over and over, the kind of line that makes you think you may be listening to a statement from paranoid schizophrenic. And the whole track has this unhinged vibe, not just in the lyrics and vocals, but the music as well, with crashes and bangs along the vocal meltdowns. Further into the song we get lyrics where Cameron is giving statements about whats happened to his daughter, his son, his wife, his husband - total unreliable narrator vibes. It's an incredible opener and one of the most exciting songs on the album.
After that, the first half of the record really does dip in quality for a few songs.
Cobra is a fine if forgettable track with a more indie sound.
Husband introduces Cameron’s crooning ability, but with less energy and more stripped back instrumentation, it feels like a more sleepy track after the explosive opener.
With the title track, things start to pick up with the first couple of minutes of the song really rocking, maybe the most rocking section on the whole album, with a strong groove and a lot of bravado. But then as the track wears on into the second half it kinda loses its steam and momentum.
Islands Of Men is an interesting track that also has a really strong first half, then breaks halfway through and then kinda meanders and loses is focus a bit. Lyrically, this song seems to touch on themes of male loneliness and incels.
The second leg of this album is where it really kicks up a notch, starting with
100 Horses. A total banger and groove-fest. Again, lyrically it is absurd, with Cameron regaling a conversion with an old army general expelling wisdom such as
"all people stop smiling once they get what they’ve been begging for" and
"all people must die scared or else die nervous" - a wrangling with fear and mortality. And also the lyrics
"there is only dance music in times of war" is totally appropriate given how groozy this song is, its easily the most infectious and most catchy track on the album.
Towards the end there is a stellar run of tracks, with
Au Pays Du Cocaine, which is probably the closes to a ballad on the album. It’s a very tender song, musically stripped back to some light guitar strings and lyrics that are on the surface simple, but clearly enigmatic. Cameron’s crooning is gorgeous as he sings "You can change" and "You can be free" over and over. Reading into it, it seems to be a song about compromise in a relationship where the two people want different things, but as the track progresses I do start to wonder if these affirmations are actually meant for Cameron himself. It’s a beautiful track.
From there,
Bow Down kicks things up a notch and is maybe the most punk song here. With lines like
"I was a sailor and now I’m the boat" and
"I was a car and now I’m the road", he seems to be alluding to someone taking advantage of him, and his resentment towards it. It’s another banger and ear worm.
Getting towards the end we then have
Taxes. It starts with a low key stripped down first half until the instrumentation hits at the halfway point,and when it hits, it has this great, uplifting tone it. The instrumentation is very heavenly and harmonious, and again we have some very strong and cryptic lyrics about self reflection, with lines such as
"Doctor, heal thyself" and
"I will break my own heart from now on".
The album wraps up with
Long Island City Here I Come, which is handily the longest track on the record. This song seems to pick up momentum as it hits its stride, forming into a galloping sort of rhythm, almost like its racing to the finish line and picking up speed before the climax.
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In conclusion - there’s several bangers here which are some of
my favourite songs of the year, and its overall a super varied album hitting different notes thematically and tonally. What really stands out to me is the songwriting, which on the surface has lots of standout, memorable lines, but also invites further reflection. Cameron’s vocal delivery is consistently excellent – he has such a unique and distinct voice, and regardless of whether he’s screaming or crooning, he has this nervous energy to him, like’s barely on the rails.
I am solidly on the Geese bandwagon, and yeah this is a total trip of an album.
