by Cole Makuch
In the music video for “Bad Love,” the first single off Blue Skies, Dehd are introduced leather-clad and accompanied by a posse of eccentrically dressed punks and pole dancers in a warehouse club. There is a brief intro of pulsing synth and tension-building floor tom, and then the trio launches into one of their strongest anthemic pop songs to date. The lighting is supplemented by energetic strobes— which emphasize the group’s signature galloping standing drums and driving staccato bass— and soft pastel accents that create a big-screen richness too crisp and saturated for real-life.
This vividness, visually and sonically, is newfound for Dehd. In every release following their 2016 eponymous debut, they have progressively stripped away layers of low-fidelity abstraction and dirt to arrive at a fundamental core of guitar, bass, and standing drum instrumentation, bare-bones hook-driven song structures, basis in live group performance, and the unmistakably distinct tandem vocal presence of Emily Kempf and Jason Balla. 2020’s Flower of Devotion presented this aesthetic as candidly as possible, without much studio intervention beyond a generous helping of surf-inspired reverb.
On Blue Skies, with the increased recording budget offered by Fat Possum Records, the group builds upon their sonic foundation for the first time. Synthesizers, shimmering guitar overdubs, and more vocal layers than possibly live-performable combine to transform the songs into larger-than-life versions of themselves, in much the same way that the studio lighting in the “Bad Love” video adds a tinge of hyperreality to the visual experience. The essence of the songs remains true to trio performance, and the additions simply augment the listening experience rather than carry the weight of songwriting.
Regarding songwriting, Dehd continues to improve upon prior releases with some of their strongest lyrics to date. Past work has included flashes of lyrical profundity, but the band has never sung of imagery as heavy-hitting as a waterfall of “perfect love” leaving one “lost in verse,” presented as narratively complete of a case to “give… all of your heart tonight,” or expressed the exhilaration and existential certainty of “blazing down [the] highway” while “seeing everything that we are”. There is also still, thankfully, one nonsense chorus on the album: “Doo doo doo. Bop!”
Overall, Blue Skies skews slow and meditative, perhaps in response to elevated emotional content of the lyrics. There are a few driving pop songs, particularly on the album’s first half, but almost half the songs sit below 100 BPM. For a group that has historically had such a distinct and consistent sound, whether this development reflects a new trajectory or is simply a product of the present creative cycle remains to be seen. Regardless, it’s exciting to see this group expand their sound, and the possibilities of what future releases might sound like are now much more colorful.