If there was one word to associate with GEESE, it would be “unpredictable”. Everything from their musicianship to their career arc has been anything but conventional, placing them dead in the center of this new post-punk wave. Although, one word is far from enough to describe the band’s mystical debut, 2021’s Projector. This set of nine songs landed the band on national tours and caught the attention of purists and journalists all the same, placing GEESE on a high pedestal with nothing but a shining future to look up to and a fiery descent below. With the world on their shoulders, that inferno of failure is put out with a wave of refreshing arrangements and veteran songcraft on the band’s long-awaited sophomore LP, 3D Country. GEESE seemingly reinvented themselves for these 11 tracks, diving deeper into their love of classic rock and pairing it with a twang that rings with the sentiment of advancement.
The monstrous “2122” welcomes you to 3D Country, a warm yet abrasive greeting from a band that is about to guide you through a whirlwind of an album. The bomb-esque stutters of the arrangement descend into a stampede of distorted drums, forecasting the off-kilter arrangements that drive the LP. Throughout the album, GEESE attempts to melt nuanced country tropes into their onslaught of classic rock, giving the two elements their respective time in the spotlight. Moments like the chugging “Gravity Blues” leans on the minimalism of a country ballad for its verses with a thrashing wall of sound thrown in the middle while that wall of sound takes on a life of its own on tracks like “Mysterious Love” and the infectious single “Cowboy Nudes”. The band volleys between these two worlds of swooning balladry and their roots in head-pounding post-punk, a cross-over worthy of praise on its own but once executed by GEESE, it becomes an ambitious fusion LP from a band that had already established its own lane.
On paper, the concept of 3D Country should’ve never sounded this good. The vivid imagery of dusty roads and lonely nights is paired with the tones of the apocalypse while still finding time for moments of vulnerable intimacy. The magic comes from the structure of these tracks. Each individual element plays off of the other without overtaking the shine, allowing for the contradicting tempos and tones to flow ever so smoothly. The droning silence and haunting vocals that close out “Crusades” are just as important as the banging piano at the center of the instrumental. The structure of these songs creates a complex yet enticing platform for the album’s lyrics.
The lyrics of GEESE’s sophomore outing needed to match its chaotic sonics, they needed to tell the story of how the band landed on this newfound love for country. There is a narrative that flows through the LP, one that spins a tale of a lonely cowboy leaving everything he knows in his hometown for a lonesome life on the road. The hero of the story finds themselves searching for the things they left behind, leaning on the frustration of lost love and longing. The poetic “I See Myself” has them pleading to be a protector while “Crusades” has them hiding behind some sort of masculinity to protect themselves from their own feelings. The album feels introspective with our main character caught in the struggle in trying to understand the world around them while also traversing the bumpy road of self-discovery. The album’s outro, “St. Elmo”, has GEESE fully leaning into the country music that drove the rest of the LP while using dark imagery to hint at an unhappy ending for our hero.
On their second album, GEESE is able to sound like a whole new band while still reminding us what we love about them in the first place. Don’t let the title of the album and the fanning over its ambitious fusion fool you, 3D Country is as hectic and mesmerizing as any other post-punk LP you may have heard recently. The country-ness of the album gives it a uniqueness that won’t be found anywhere else while balancing the genre they call home with their wildest musical fantasies. The band finds a middle ground between their grandiose arrangements and a new sense of minimalism, giving these songs a solid foundation as they build the captivating narrative of 3D Country. The sophomore slump is nowhere in sight for GEESE, the only thing in their line of vision is unwavering creativity and a new album that is sure to transform the landscape of post-punk as we know it.
