It’s easy to feel like not much has changed with Deli Girls between albums – the gritty instrumentation and alternatingly spoken and screamed vocals is a pretty straight line between Evidence (2017), I Don’t Know How To Be Happy (2019), and their newest album, BOSS (2020). The production is a little cleaner each album – despite the grit, there’s a clearer separation between instruments and the vocals gain more presence – but the rage is always there.
I Don’t Know How To Be Happy, one of my favorite albums of 2019, was unrelentingly aggressive. Every moment of that album I wanted to jump around and smash into things. BOSS continues this aggression, but also has a few softer moments, vulnerable moments even, that clarify the anger of the rest of the album.
The first moment where BOSS sets itself apart is the opening to “motherless fuck.” The instrumentation drops from the driven bass line into some softer digital strings, heavy breathing, and chord plucks. The vocal delivery is still screaming but against the backdrop of this instrumentation it feels more vulnerable – the delivery feels more aware of the hurt behind the anger.
Another moment like this is the end of “loaded gun.” The frenetic, hardstyle-level energy of the song drops away at the last moment, leaving soft reverberating piano as a backdrop to a scream that feels like it’s pushed through sobs. This switch up makes the emotions before and after even more powerful; the moment of vulnerability makes the anger feel that much stronger when “feedback/failure” (featuring LEECH) begins.
Deli Girls’ collaboration with the amazing LEYA on “barriers to love” marks another wonderful moment of divergence from the hard driven sound that permeates Deli Girls’ work. Harps, strings, and guitars create a discordant ambience, and Danny Orlowski’s vocals are positioned a little further back, awash in reverb. It creates a haunting effect; a new and different kind of unease than I’m used to from Deli Girls.
The closing track of BOSS is a final moment of vulnerability, a final contrast to the animosity that paints most of the album. “all the things i’ve done” pairs more slow builds, pads, and synths – like those found in the opening of “motherless fuck” – but in this case the song is completely built on and committed to this emotional texture. Orlowski’s vocals start in a spoken word cadence, slowly moving into the sort of sobbing scream heard in “loaded gun.” There’s moments of hope buried in the anger:
Are you with me? Are you with me then listen and all is forgiven
What means more than forgiveness? We want the same shit, it’s not giving in, it’s just giving a shit
Just loosen your grip and you’ll start to feel things
BOSS is a brilliant album. It’s easily in my top albums of 2020, and I think what makes it so strong is Deli Girls' use of the dynamics between rage and vulnerability make both feelings stronger. I love the ferocity of Deli Girls – “no such thing as good and evil” is easily one of my favorite songs on the album, a perfect anthem for a messy year. Its distilled anger is made that much stronger by the moments we find just after in “motherless fuck”; moments of quiet, like we find in “barriers to love,” provide the space to hear the anger all the clearer.
BOSS is the third album from Deli Girls, and is available on their Bandcamp.