"I'm sorry for the time that I made out with all your friends, I'm really a s***head," Speedy Ortiz lead-singer Sadie Dupuis apologizes over loud twisting guitar riffs in "Bigger Party," the latest single in Adult Swim's 2014 Singles Series. Hearing the disclosure on first listen is a bit disarming, especially when you consider the 90s indie rock Speedy Ortiz is indebted to. When bands like Pavement or Built to Spill dealt with real emotion they were incredibly cryptic. You may have gotten a sense of the pain Stephen Malkmus or Doug Martsch were going through but it was only a sense.
Dupuis' admission is more in line with confessional indie-folk, the sort Sun Kil Moon masterfully crafted on 2014's Benji. "Bigger Party" isn't quite the open book effort "Dogs" is, but it's on that side of the spectrum. Most people don't want to cop to the sloppy make out sessions they once had, particularly when they were with someone's friends. However it's that kind of confession that makes "Bigger Part" so engaging. My heart starts beating as loud as Matt Falcone's drums when I hear it. Music is about taking risks and Speedy Ortiz take plenty of them here. They trade in their usual riffage for what AV Club referred to as a "freak-folk undercurrent" and "a bit of a country twang." During the final instrumental passage, the guitars scrape in a way that brings to mind the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." There is one push back to familiar margins though. After a brief bit of fuzz, Dupuis returns with "I have to use these metaphors just to say I like you." Not everything can be an open book.
"Bigger Party" officially appears on the Singles Series site on Monday.
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