Deer Tick (from the album Contractual Obligations

Deer Tick (from the album Contractual Obligations

Deer Tick (from the album Contractual Obligations available on ATO Records) (by Bryant Liggett)
Deer Tick are a Rock band. They pull no punches, and offer nothing more than that descriptor, for their latest in the eight-song Contractual Obligations digging into influences of just about every decade of the Rock realm. From Classic Rock to New Wave to Indie, they are one of those textbook bands whose music scores a sweaty pub, roaring stadium, or back-yard party.
There’s a party-rock riff that opens the grooving “Sacrosanct” that kicks the song off, giving way to John McCauley’s classic rough growl. It then gets big. The animated “Wasting Time” is nothing short of playful, while the bouncy “Big Black Hearse” is a Ska tune hidden behind some Rock posturing, another cut that gets big when the horns kick in. “Die on a Hill” is slowed down Country Blues, “Life Insurance” has an 80’s new wave vibe, and “The Last Book in the Shelf” is a lazy Blues rocker that sounds like it could come from 1978. “On Fire” is Indie Rock, and the closer in “Goodbyes” exits the record with a sad piano ballad, a slowed down weeper that shows Deer Tick is just as good at the melancholy as they are at pumping out the Rockers.
Recorded during the sessions for 2023’s Emotional Contracts, Contractual Obligations isn’t holdovers, but a stand-alone release from a band that remains on a steady stride of the 21st Century bringing their Rock and Roll canon.
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