Dizzy

by 
AlbumAug 18 / 202312 songs, 41m 32s
Noteable

On the cover of Dizzy’s self-titled third release, singer Katie Munshaw’s face fills the entire frame, but the seeming intimacy of the shot is tempered by the fact that she’s wearing a mask. It’s a fitting visual metaphor for a band that sounds like it’s ready for its close-up yet is still giving voice to those uncomfortable inner thoughts that are more easily delivered without direct eye contact. Munshaw grapples with that contradiction on “Open Up Wide,” a sassy Metric-esque synth-rocker with a withering, self-reflexive chorus—“Open up wide, gotta pay to rent/To rot away in my mom’s basement/Open up wide, gotta pay/To get the kids in front headbanging”—that does little to diminish its destiny as a surefire festival crowd-pleaser. For the first time, Dizzy has looked beyond their immediate circle for production guidance and enlisted Selena Gomez/Bebe Rexha associate David Pramik, who helps nudge the group further into arena-pop territory on sunrise-summoning bops like “Birthmark” and euphoric power ballads like “Are You Sick of Me Yet?” while still retaining the dreamy, post-shoegaze textures that permeated their past work. But even as their sound continues to expand out toward the rafters, the songs remain grounded in the brutal honesty of Munshaw’s songwriting: “Knock the Wind” may lull you into thinking it’s a gentle campfire serenade, but its spiteful sentiments (“I wanna hurt you like you did me, just because/Hold your head beneath the surface/In a pool of my own blood”) prove she’s not about to sugarcoat her lyrics to appease the masses.

8

7 / 10

With two albums already to their name the quartet have firmly established themselves as one of Canada’s most impressive alternative outfits. After a brief musical break, they’re back and with their self-titled third record in tow, Dizzy are sure-fire…

After a blistering beginning, the remainder meshes into the unremarkable.

9 / 10

A few months ago, with hot tears stinging my eyes, I told a person I loved in a hungry sort of way that I hated them for destroying me. "I h...

Dizzy are pretty good at that, and they’re even better at it on their new self titled album.