Spectreview: Ducks Ltd. – Modern Fiction

Released: October 1, 2021

Indie Pop
(Indie Rock)
(Jangle Pop)

-MAGENTA-

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“I wish that I could say
Where it got me
But it’s not me”

Ducks Ltd.’s debut record has one central idea, and it’s brilliant: take driving guitar and upbeat 4/4 drums and craft jangly pop melodies swaddled in bookish ennui. The Toronto-based duo focuses exclusively on that approach within Modern Fiction, and the debut LP benefits greatly from it. Its ten songs all start in that mode and carry that momentum all the way into their final moments, each track at the crossroads between 80’s strummy indie pop a la Look Blue Go Purple and the lead-driven jangle rock of Real Estate. Tom McGreevy’s nasal vocal adds a touch of Oasis into the mix, rounding out a sound that’s instantly recognizable while veering slightly off the beaten path.

Free of chaff or balladry, Modern Fiction makes an impression through sheer energy. “How Lonely Are You” opens the record perfectly with both guitars paired in a mix of electricity and melody, its irresistible vocal hook tempered with empathy as the kick drum pulses unceasing. Side A is all similarly killer; the surfy, bass-led “Old Times” flows naturally into the beautifully muted “18 Cigarettes” and the uptempo rollick of “Under the Rolling Moon.” It’s tempting to say that the record’s front-loaded, but much of what shows up later in the runtime feels softer by nature of an accompanying string section that takes the affecting “Always There” and the danceable “Grand Final Day” to heightened levels of grandiosity.

Music like this doesn’t need to knock it out of the park lyrically to convey something significant, but McGreevy comes across as a deft wordsmith here. Throughout Modern Fiction he oscillates between more verbose passages and more erudite language, often in the same song. “18 Cigarettes” makes for a good example of this; where his verses and pre-choruses wrap heady words around its serpentine guitar lines, its chorus is all simply-spoken yearning. McGreevy readily pulls this trick off throughout the album, juxtaposing iconic Barcelona architecture with a hungover perspective on “Fit To Burst” (one of the only tracks that could have done with a little expounding) and peppering Old English into “‘Twere Ever Was,” an ode to the standoffish and self-loathing. His words add a certain sophisti-pop flavor – think Prefab Sprout but less romantic – into an already eclectic mix. The end result is a breezy but substantial pop album heavy on danceable energy but sharpened with an introspective edge.

Recommended for the UK.