If there is one thing Deer Tick knows how to do best, it’s bring energy. Contractual Obligations chooses quality over quantity on this eight track album.

Starting off strong, “Sacrosanct” is the idea of holding someone up so high, but on what grounds? In the lyrics “I didn’t wish to be born / No one knows you put a broken soul in a child’s bones,” the disconnect between how this person is perceived and who they actually are is palpable. During the final stretch, before the last verse, the listener can feel how hard Dennis Ryan is playing his drums with an extreme sense of passion.

The introduction guitar rhythm that carries throughout “Wasting Time” is one of an anthem with its vibrato creating a lingering sound that sets up the lyrics perfectly. This song is everything about nothing. They are singing about what one does at the peak of utmost boredom trying to ‘waste time.’ This song was no waste of time on Contractual Obligations.

“Big Black Hearse” is jazz, rock and energy packed. It is not enough to just listen to this track, full immersion is necessary to feel it. The high tempo keys, the stretching reach of John McCauley’s vocals and jumpy guitar combine to create a burst of emotions and radiant sound. This song has hope coursing through the lyrics in a tough love sort of way, “Hate how you feel, hate the air that you breath / No one’s gonna guarantee you’re finally getting everything you want.”

“The Last Book On The Shelf” is an eerie story with illustrations of the burning of history, “It smells like Amber Einstein, Hemingway and Hellen Keller / Like burning Beatle records.” It is almost a cry out to save the pages of history, as snare drums play in a marching band like ode, while “You hear that marching band sound” is sung.

The final song on the album, “Goodbyes,” is a melancholy piano number that shows how saying goodbye can be easier to sing in a song than to actually say to a person. The bass/kick drum expresses the heartbreak perfectly as the sound of a thunderstorm in the background. “So goodbye to fighting this fight / and talking to thin air / and wishing that you’ll hear / you’re so far from me,” McCauley is digging deep into his soul with this number.

Deer Tick takes us along on a true journey in Contractual Obligations. Each song has a story that opens up new emotions simultaneously through powerful lyricism and a passionate production.