New Orleans D.I.Y. scenesters Special Interest signed with Rough Trade after making a splash with a pair of raw and outspoken, often grooving albums that combined styles ranging from no wave, post-punk, and alternative dance to pure, venting punk rock. On their Rough Trade debut, Endure, they expand even further upon this wide-ranging sonic territory to dip their toes into more refined funk and arty dance-rock (think
the B-52s et al.) while smoothing rough edges a little -- but just a little. (The self-produced album was mixed by
Collin Dupuis, known for working with
Lana Del Rey,
Angel Olsen,
the Black Keys,
Yves Tumor, and many more.) Fueled by the pandemic outbreak and political uprisings of 2020, Endure is the type of album that would decompress with friends at the club after burning down the police station. With quartet member
Ruth Mascelli on synthesizers and drum machines, opener "Cherry Blue Intention" begins with an unnerving, rapid-fire closed-hi-hat pattern, which is soon joined by pulsing, drum'n'bass-inspired beats, a squeal of feedback, and murky bass and lead guitar riffs (by Nathan Cassiani and Maria Elena, respectively) that, altogether, sound something like a siren going off in a packed club. Meanwhile, snarling vocalist/lyricist Alli Logout delivers lines like "Enigmatic super psycho/I can be whoever you want/Just for the night though." Later on, they opt for a dissonant, angular post-punk on working-class anthem "Foul" ("Minimum-balance savings-account blues!") before embracing a smooth four-on-the-floor groove on the sultry, R&B-tinged "Midnight Legend," which features an appearance by rapper/poet
Mykki Blanco. The group get louder and angrier on songs like "Impulse Control" and "Concern Peace," whose title refers to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, an examination of the harmful psychological effects of colonization. Endure eventually closes with the surprising instrumental "Interlude," which acts as a deep breath leading into the eight-minute, midtempo (for Special Interest) "LA Blues" ("LA" meaning Louisiana), whose lyrical vignettes act as a record of a certain time and place in New Orleans, and which tells people what they can do if they don't like it. By the end, the album both feels like an inevitable destination from prior albums and represents an excellent entry point for the uninitiated. ~ Marcy Donelson