On ‘Rabbit Rabbit,’ Speedy Ortiz Returns with the Kind of Rock Record We (and They) Need Right Now

Ten years after Major Arcana, the breakthrough record that made indie-rock darlings out of Sadie Dupuis’ Speedy Ortiz, the band is back with a new record: Rabbit Rabbit.

The group’s return has been much-anticipated. The smattering singles released prior to the September 1 drop date earned praise from The New York Times and Pitchfork among others, foreshadowing the kind of buzz Rabbit Rabbit was soon to create. The band visited the Tiny Desk for a performance ten years in the making. And when it finally dropped on September 1, the album got top-billing on All Songs Considered.

Released on Dupuis’ own label, Wax Nine, and drawing its title from an incantation that an adolescent Dupuis deployed to cope with OCD and trauma, Rabbit Rabbit is, indeed, a very good rock record. Its edges are jagged. Its guitars are crunchy. Dupuis’ lyrics are thought-provoking, stirring and occasionally quite funny as she writes about her childhood, activism and wrestling with the many contradictions of 21st-Century adulting. The songs are catchy as hell, too, wrapped up in the kind of tight, sunny-pop package that first earned the group critical plaudits.

• Stream Rabbit Rabbit

It’s a smartly written, spiky, grungy, weird and wonderful long player that certainly warrants the buzz it’s created.

More New Music

You can hear new tracks from Speedy Ortiz, and music from local, regional, national and international artists on our music discovery station The Independent 89.9 HD4. And you can follow our Fresh Squeeze playlist on Spotify to stream all the best new music, updated every month.