_{Text: Paul van der Zalm}

Some people’s rock careers end at the age of 27, but for guitarist Lindsey Troy it only really started then. In 2013, the debut album ‘Sistrionix’ of Deap Vally was released, the two-woman band of Troy and the three years older Julie Edwards on drums. On that album, the two of them managed to create an impressive and full sound that put them years ahead of bands like Royal Blood. It was also immediately clear that they drew their inspiration from Led Zeppelin and consistently implemented that style.

Now it is eight years later and their third album is released, already five years after their successor Femejism. In the meantime, the two haven’t been idle: Troy became a mother and musically speaking, there was a collaboration with the Flaming Lips, which resulted in a Deap Lips album, released at the beginning of the first lockdown.

The collaboration went well, because earlier this year the EPs Digital Dream (February) and American Cockroach (June) were released on which we can hear colleagues like Jennie Vee, Ayse Hassan (Savages), Soko and Jamie Hince. Two songs from the first EP are also on the album: the hypnotic closing ‘Look Away’ is a collaboration with Jennylee and with a length of 4:36 it is the longest song on the album; ‘High Horse’ is a blues rock song with the cooperation of KT Tunstall and Peaches in the choirs. Two songs are also taken from Cockroach: ‘Give Me A Sign’ has a waltz melody and a string arrangement and could be a song by Lana Del Rey; ‘I Like Crime’, featuring Jenny Vee of the Eagles Of Death Metal, is a would-be sing-along, especially when the song turns into a canon.

Phoenix’ is a remarkably danceable song and single ‘Magic Medicine’ is indie pop like Blood Red Shoes makes it. The last song has a history of five years. Originally it was about being high, but nowadays it’s also about ‘we need a miracle cure to make it safe to have fun and feel free again’. Fortunately, some of the original rawness has been preserved: in protest song ‘Perfuction’, which opens the album, the duo goes straight for it and we hear influences of the legendary Runaways; memorable is the line ‘Every Octopus Has Suction’. The songs ‘Billions’ and ‘I’m The Master’ sound pretty dirty with distorted sounds against the backdrop of Edwards’ driving rhythm. In the bluesy ‘Where Do We Go’ we hear of course a fat bass and further this has a weird outro. Also a strange, because sudden, ending is there for ‘Better Run (For Your Life)’, that further distinguishes itself by the talking vocals in this song.

With MARRIAGE, Deap Valley thus delivers a pleasantly surprisingly diverse album, which shows that the two do everything to keep their open relationship exciting (even for us).

Cooking Vinyl / V2 Records