Is there a good place to start with Deerhoof? I always confused them with Deerhunter, a band I discovered around the same time, but my only experience with the San Francisco quartet was their 2007 release Friend Opportunity, an album I barely remember except as “weird.” Almost 20 years later I made the impromptu decision to try again. Enter Noble And Godlike In Ruin, their latest critically acclaimed record in a delightful light green vinyl. It’s still weird, but in a way the intervening 18 years of listening have prepared me. Still, there’s a part of me that feels unequipped to explain why now I can find a lot to enjoy in its anarchic chaos.

There’s a hymnal, invocation aspect to the opening moments of “Overrated Species Anyhow” before it turns into the jittering, angular pop of “Sparrow Sparrow.” Bassist/vocalist Satomi Matsuzaki’s chirping voice finds pockets of space between the clattering percussion of founding drummer Greg Saunier. Everything moves quickly; just when I was starting to find purchase on the slippery “Kingtoe” it suddenly (to my ears) evolves into “Return of the Return of the Fire Trick Star”, itself only a seed, stuttering for a moment before blooming into the forest symphony of “A Body of Mirrors.”

Is this the trick of Deerhoof? Or simply a component of Noble And Godlike In Ruin‘s framework? My brain rushes to words ending in “-ttering” – clattering, stuttering, skittering – to describe the way the band embodies the tenants of punk and noise but brace them in a skeletal indie pop/rock construction. On their official site they announced the album with these words:

“NOBLE AND GODLIKE IN RUIN”
which is about grotesque transformations and hybrid creatures of myth
it is big and scary
it is in an anti-bourgeois style that mixes the beautiful with the cruel

I’m not quite sure what to make of that, or of the way the band, additionally anchored by Ed Rodríguez and John Dieterich on guitars and additional instruments, are able to jam together all these disparate elements yet find enough hooks to carry you along minute after minute. Side B, or Act II as it’s labeled on the inner sleeve, finds greater success in the way it further experiments. It doesn’t hurt to also have Saul Williams turn out a killer vocal performance on single “Under Rats”.

It’s a massive highlight on an album full of sparkling moments, but the way it uses Williams and then segues into my other favorite track on the album, the far-reaching “Immigrant Songs” elevates the totality of Noble And Godlike In Ruin in a way that surprises me, changing my position mid-review (and mid-listen) to throw that “Best of 2025” tag up.