Deaf Lingo Rips and Rocks Through 10 Amazing Songs on New Album Lingonberry
4.7 out of 5 stars
The Italian punk outfit Deaf Lingo put out their second studio album on April 28th, 2022 called Lingonberry, and it is an outstanding punk album full of crisp guitars, rocking choruses, and uptempo beats that remind me of a smash and crash version of early punk rock bands like New York Dolls mixed with a bit of new era rock like The Hives or something to that effect.
I would put this album high on my list of Breakthrough Artists of the year, because this album is fantastic and the recording, mixing and mastering is done really well. It’s all around a great album.
The song “Summertime” which is the first full song on the album will have you bobbing your head and tapping your foot. It is anthemic and just like pretty much every other song on the album, it sounds fresh, poppy, and it is a bit of a throwback song to not just old school punk, but the pop rock of the 1960’s as well. It’s a great mix of different genres.
The song “Friends” had me thinking back to bands like Superdrag and other pop rock bands of the late 90’s that knew how to write great songs full of rad guitar riffs and solos with great start and stops and a rolling bass line that brings it all together. This might be my favorite song on the album as well.
“Antisocial” has a chord progression that brings to mind bands like Bracket for its weird chords mixed with a bit of an off tune vocal melody. I really enjoy when bands do this for some reason, and this song rips while being just that bit of weird as well.
The band is classified more in the Alternative category, and it is heavily influenced by punk and grunge from what I can hear. I think most alternative bands would probably fall within those lines though.
I think the “grunge” bit of their sound is best displayed in the song, “Reception” towards the end of the album as it has a pretty gravelly sounding verse. It’s juxtaposed with some “oo-wee-oo” vocals as well though.
The acoustic heavy “Cars and Houses” is also a very cool nod to the alternative rock of the 90’s as it was sort of the first time that rock bands with “edge” felt it was cool enough to play an acoustic set or even a single song since Nirvana gave it the ultimate credibility on their Unplugged in New York album.
The album is capped off by the title track “Lingonberry” which is definitely a rocker’s ideal version of a song, in my opinion. It’s the longest track on the album, but it has some very cool elements, and I can see how this would be a fan favorite in a live show for the various techniques to get a crowd pumped up (starts-stops, singalong vocals, yelling, guitar solos, etc…). It’s definitely a great song that you can throw on in any situation and get pumped listening to.
I was very happy to have spent the time to listen to this album, and if you are worried about a band from Italy not being coherent or speaking weird or not having English lyrics/vocals, well, you won’t have to worry as Deaf Lingo speaks and sings in perfect English.