Album review: Teen Mortgage – Devil Ultrasonic Dream

A laid back, misfit aura oozes out of Washington D.C. duo Teen Mortgage, and they’ve bottled it in their debut album, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. It’s not the sort of carefree mindset that’s frivolous and without worry, more of a ‘the world is going to shit and I’ve had enough’, anti-rat race and anti-bullshit, no-fucks-given vibe. Hell, even their name alludes to the endless ways to sacrifice your livelihood to the powers that be, all to simply survive.

Across its fast and fizzy 11 tracks, Devil Ultrasonic Dream transports you into a garage band world straight out of the late ’90s. Purposefully loose and poorly enunciated vocals capture the muffled sounds of early live and DIY set-ups from the past, leaking into one blaring, almost singular sound. Where songs like Ride go full-pelt on repetitive guitars and a surf sleaze, Personal Hell knocks it back a peg with a slower tempo and creepy ‘ooh ooh’ vocal motifs. It’s a little more disorientating, and toys with thicker guitar work than their typical relentlessly speedy belters.

It all sets Teen Mortgage up as a truly exciting act. As a debut, it cements their footprint in the concrete of thriving punk, but shows that they do things differently to the main players in the game. Though many tracks are short, a four-minute closer, I Don’t Want To Know, steers them alongside bands like Basement or Superheaven, and demonstrates their melodic, long-form chops too.

Tinged with a glorious nostalgia from the turn of the millennium, Devil Ultrasonic Dream taps into the magic of sulky, teenage grunge without seeming like it’s trying too hard. Fast yet fed-up, this is a record that feels like one hell of a headrush.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Bad Nerves, Turnstile, Basement

Devil Ultrasonic Dream is released on April 11 via Roadrunner