Deer Tick - Emotional Contracts (LP) - Red Vinyl

Deer Tick’s Emotional Contracts landed on June 16, 2023, and it feels like a band taking a deep breath and locking back into the thing they do best. It is their first full-length of new material since the twin 2017 releases, and the time away shows in the best way. The songs are tighter, the writing is sharper, and the performances have that ragged confidence that has kept the Providence lifers a step ahead of most roots-rock outfits. They teamed up with producer Dave Fridmann at his Tarbox Road Studios in Cassadaga, New York, and you can hear his touch right away. The guitars glow around the edges, the drums sit big and roomy, and the whole thing moves with the warmth of a band playing together in a real space.

What I love here is how the four-piece chemistry shines. John McCauley and Ian O’Neil trade guitars that swing from tough to tender without fuss, while Chris Ryan’s bass and Dennis Ryan’s drums keep the floorboards sturdy. Deer Tick have always thrived on contrast, and Fridmann leans into that. When the band surges, the sound blooms, but you never lose the human grit. When they pull back, the vocals sit close and conversational, like the band stepped off stage and onto the barstools next to you.

The early singles set the tone. Forgiving Ties walks in with a weary smile and a melody that hangs around long after the needle lifts. It is a song about owning up, about meeting your past halfway, and it lands with that plainspoken honesty McCauley has been refining since War Elephant. Once In A Lifetime (their song, not a Talking Heads cover) crests on jangling guitars and a chorus that opens up like a field. It is big-hearted without getting syrupy. Across the record you hear grown-up themes handled with zero preachiness. The band writes about love and accountability, about the strange, funny calm that can follow years of chaos. No heavy-handed metaphors, just lines that feel lived-in.

There is plenty of kick, too. Deer Tick still know how to make a room move. The rhythm section stays unflashy, which is the secret. Those pocket grooves carry the rockers and give the ballads air to breathe. The harmonies are another quiet weapon. McCauley and O’Neil twist around each other in a way that makes even the roughest lyric sound welcoming. It is easy to imagine these songs sliding into their set next to Fan favorites from Divine Providence or the Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 era, and I mean that as a compliment. Emotional Contracts feels like part of the same family tree, just a branch that has seen more weather.

Production-heads will hear little Fridmann tells in the saturation and the width, though this is not one of his more psychedelic turns. The focus is on performance and feel. You can picture the amps facing each other, the band eye-to-eye, takes landing because the four of them clicked that day. Deer Tick have hinted in interviews that this one came together through steady collaboration, and it sounds like it. The arrangements are lean, the flourishes earned. Nothing flashy for the sake of it.

Spin this on a decent setup and the songs come alive. Emotional Contracts vinyl rewards volume, especially when the drums and acoustic guitars start to breathe. If you are hunting Deer Tick vinyl for your shelf, this one sits nicely next to the rawer early work, a kind of older cousin who still drinks cheap beer but knows when to call it a night. I have stumbled on copies in a Melbourne record store and smiled at the thought of some local taking it home to test the speakers. And if you prefer the couch to the crate dig, it is easy enough to buy Deer Tick records online these days. For collectors, Deer Tick albums on vinyl tend to stick around in rotation, and this one will not be an exception. Emotional Contracts vinyl is the kind of record you pull out when a friend says they miss real bands playing together.

Deer Tick have been around long enough to understand their strengths, and they lean into them without nostalgia. The songs feel current because the feelings are. There are no gimmicks, no pivots to chase trends, just a seasoned band making music that values conversation over proclamation. Put it on, let the guitars warm the room, and remember why rock and roll still has a place on your shelf. If you are browsing and bump into a copy, do not overthink it. This is one to take home.