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Following in the footsteps of
the Go-Betweens,
Orange Juice, and key players from the Sarah Records roster, Toronto indie pop group
Ducks Ltd put a premium on the bittersweet jangle. After operating for a time under the name Ducks Unlimited, the band shortened their moniker in 2021 to avoid legal action from a wetlands conservation group of the same name. Shortly after the name change,
Ducks Ltd reissued their 2019 debut EP,
Get Bleak, and quickly followed with their debut full-length, Modern Fiction.
The first material frontman/songwriter Tom Mcgreevy composed for
Ducks Ltd was 2017's "Age of Entertainment," a reverb-heavy song he recorded with bassist/string arranger
Paul Erlichman (Germaphobes), violinist Lee Rose (Planet Creature), and backing vocalist Jesse Crowe (
Beliefs). The project quickly settled into a bouncier, '80s jangle pop-inspired sound with "It's Easy," released the same year. Early songs led to opening spots for acts like
the Goon Sax and
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever as well as
Weyes Blood while Mcgreevy and friends worked toward an EP.
Ducks Ltd signed with Bobo Integral Records for the resulting
Get Bleak, which arrived in late 2019. The record earned effusive praise from a number of publications and caught the ear of
Carpark Records, which reissued the EP with three bonus tracks in May 2021. Before the year was up,
Ducks Ltd released their first proper full-length album, Modern Fiction. ~ Marcy Donelson