McQ's #60 Album Of 2015 (Tie) - FOIL DEER - Speedy Ortiz & FEELS LIKE - Bully

Coming in at #60 in our 2015 album countdown - efforts from two female-fronted 90s revival acts, both mild recommends, that strongly evoke the enduring alt-rock grandeur of the likes of The Breeders, Liz Phair, and Hole.

Of the two, Massachussetts-based Speedy Ortiz's Foil Deer, with its twisted, knotty time signatures, knife-edged vocals and spikey guitar attack is far and away the more original and sophisticated -- but also the more difficult -- of the two.

And while I am only giving the record a mild recommend, it needs to be said that Foil Deer is a huge leap forward from the band's previous effort Major Arcana.

Run Nirvana's In Utero and Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville through a meat grinder, and you've got a solid sense of what Foil Deer is offering up.

Feel Like, on the otherhand, from Nashvile-based Bully, is the more derivative and youthful album of the two, focused  on such eternal high school-aged concerns like waiting for one's first period or getting wasted, but done with such belief and vocal chord shredding, Hole-like verve from lead singer Alicia Bagnanno that in many ways it is the more likeable of the two efforts.

Beyond Trying, a band's breakout hit, I also really enjoyed Reason, probably the catchiest song on the album, and the ass-kicker Six.

Either way, if your looking for a fairly fresh alt-rock fix, you could do far worse than checking out these two promising early efforts from acts whose best work is probably still ahead of them.

Foil Deer's Best Bets: Raising The Skate, The Graduates, Puffer, My Dead Girl.



Foil Deer's Track Listing:
1. Good Neck - 7
2. Raising The Skate - 9
3. The Graduates - 8
4. Dot X - 6
5. Homonovus - 7
6. Puffer - 7
7. Swell Content - 6
8. Zig - 6
9. My Dead Girl - 8
10. Ginger - 7
11. Mister Difficult - 7
12. Dvrk Wrld - 7
Intangibles - Average

Here's the video for Foil Deer's best track, Raising The Skate.

Feels Like's Best Bets: Reason, Trying, Six, Bully.



Feels Like's Track Listing:
1. I Remember - 7
2. Reason - 8
3. Too Tough - 6
4. Brainfreeze - 7
5. Trying - 8
6. Trash - 7
7. Six - 8
8. Picture - 7
9. Milkman - 7
10. Bully - 8
Intangibles - Above Average

Here's the video for Feels Like's hit song, Trying.