Harm's Way

On their earliest recordings (the EP Get Bleak and debut full-length Modern Fiction, both released in 2021), Torontos Ducks Ltd. called heavily upon the chiming guitar sound and wistful romanticism of touchstone indie pop acts like Felt, Orange Juice, and the Feelies without being wholly swallowed by their influences. The bands ability to nod to these inspirations while writing songs from personalized perspectives made their albums feel less like homage and more like a continuation of the great tradition of dour bedroom-pop artistry. Their sophomore LP, Harms Way, develops this individualism even further, taking the songwriting, arrangement, and production to deeper places than before. The first sweeping change comes with the production. While earlier output was self-produced and recorded at home in the bands basement studio, this time they traveled to Chicago to work with producer Dave Vettraino while bringing in members of Dehd, Ratboys, Dummy, Patio, and more for guest contributions. The sound of Harms Way is more robust than previous Ducks offerings, with the power pop opener "Hollowed Out" exploding with Robyn Hitchcock levels of melodicism and the newfound forcefulness of a Replacements bootleg. The speedy "The Main Thing" is similar, with a caffeinated tempo driving hooks worthy of the Flying Nun roster toward a chorus rich with dialed-in vocal harmonies. "Deleted Scenes" opts for heavy reverb and paisley underground wistfulness over the jumpy energy that carries most of Harms Way, but even this relatively subdued song is lively and full of dynamic guitar twists and turns. Rusty fuzz guitar and sweet string arrangements collide on final track "Heavy Bag," a perfect way to come down from an album thats often more anxiously excited than not. Echoes of bands like the Go-Betweens, the Verlaines, and a smattering of more obscure C-86 reference points still surface throughout the record, but Ducks Ltd. come fully into their own with a combination of heightened production values, arrangements that lean into discrete synthesizers and vocal layers, and sneakily depressive lyrics hidden in songs overflowing with brisk pop charm. ~ Fred Thomas