Speedy Ortiz released their hook-heavy EP Real Hair last year, which didn’t necessarily mark any sort of departure for the Boston-based band but was an immediately gratifying, simpler first listen compared to their debut full-length. 2013’s Major Arcana is an unorthodox record. Intricate instrumentation echoes lead singer and guitarist Sadie Dupuis’ hyper-intellectual word choice, making it anything but easy to listen to — which is what makes me return to it constantly. Speedy Ortiz will release their sophomore album, Foil Deer, in April, and if “Raising The Skate” is any indication, it will be a triumphant follow-up.

There are those who find it necessary to parse Dupuis’ lyrics and try to make half-assed sense of them, but I’m of a different persuasion. Speedy Ortiz’s songs shape-shift, they bend over backwards to provide their audience with something that sounds really fucking cool as a whole, so putting too much weight in words does them a disservice. Dupuis spits a series of rhymes and ruminations that aren’t necessarily rendered any clearer through dissection, which is what makes her cutting one-liners and backhanded disses all the more memorable. “Raising The Skate” is a loaded power play — the chorus repurposes the Beyoncé-sanctioned tagline, “I’m not bossy I’m the boss,” as Dupuis and the band’s new guitarist Devin McNight tug at an air-tight rhythm section. It’s ferocious, triumphant, maybe even angry, but I’m not in the position to assume. Listen below.

(via Fader)

Foil Deer will be out 4/21 via Carpark.