The duo of Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss have been playing as Quasi for thirty years and their newest release, Breaking the Balls of History, just maybe their strongest effort yet.
Coomes and Weiss sure do take their time between releases, it has been ten years since the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink double album Mole City, but rather than expand the sound or style, Quasi culls it down to the core of what they do best; fuzzy, quirky, pop rock.
Starting with the buzzing noise of Coomes’ shapeshifting keyboard work before Weiss’ stomping drums crash into the scene, album opener “Last Long Laugh” sets the tones in a few ways for the rest of the record to follow. First, it offers up end-of-day imagery with its lyrics as the album was mostly constructed during Covid lockdown. Second, those lyrics can be delivered in some pretty harmonic fashion when the duo vocalizes together. Third, the track retains an odd, infectious, hip-shaking groove in spite of the lyrical darkness.
Produced with John Goodmanson the album has a vibrant feel as digital squealing starts off the electric “Back in Your Tree” displaying sexy cool rock sounds. The duo switch roles as Coomes takes over the marching on his piano and Weiss percussively scutters around on “Queen of Ears”, which displays an expansive floating break, while “Inbetweenness” goes even further out in the spacey, prog rock direction. The touch of over-the-top pomp is a bit much during “Gravity” with the track’s huge theatrical organs, but the oh-so-sweet catchy pop of “Shitty Is Pretty” wipes that instantly away.
The electro disco “Nowheresville” is a showcase for Weiss’ immense talents behind the kit while the piano and keys of Coomes bang along on “Rotten Wrock”. Even with all of this fine craftsmanship, a trio of tracks rises even higher. “Riots & Jokes” shakes and rattles with garage rock goodness, “The Losers Win” ends the album in classic Quasi mix/match fashion of silly/sweet, and “Doomscrollers” captures the heart of the pandemic angst with perfect precision while delivering soaring music that seems out of place to the lyrics, but (like the rest of the album) works for this duo.
The successfulness of Breaking the Balls of History is captured by the palpable feeling of dancing joyously, while simultaneously viewing Armageddon. The power pop of Quasi is awash in distortion throughout the album, keeping hips shaking, heads bobbing and nerves rattling.
