The Mallard "Finding Meaning in Deference"

The San Francisco quartet The Mallard pulls an unusual move with its second album, 2013’s Finding Meaning in Deference. Frontwoman Greer McGettrick pulled the plug on the band before its release. Whatever momentum the group had—and it was purely in underground circles, where its critical reputation was slowly but steadily growing—will now be based on how people rediscover a band that’s left behind two obscure studio albums. The angry noises of “Gestur” make clear that The Mallard was a band unafraid of getting down and dirty when the moment called for it. “React” rattles around like a garage band in the spirit of the even more volatile Brian Jonestown Massacre with its few chords and unschooled vocal mumbles working as hard as songs with three times the density and technique. The spoken-word bits during “Just an Ending” add a sense of faux-legacy and seriousness that suggests McGettrick’s next trick could be a band that cops its ideas from The Fall.