The controlled chaos of Geese

FOWL PLAY

- Sanjoy Narayan

In today’s hyperactive rock landscape, where bands proliferate like wildflowers only to wilt just as quickly, Brooklyn’s Geese are a curious anomaly.

They are neither saviours nor charlatans; they are simply very good, and getting better with astonishing rapidity.

Their latest album, Getting Killed, has critics in raptures. It is being called “an instant classic” and “one of the most creative indie rock records of the 2020s”. These are dangerous accolades for a band whose members are barely into their 20s. It could either propel them into the stratosphere or crush them under the weight of impossible expectation.

But let us pause here for a necessary clarification: We are discussing Geese, the Brooklyn art-rock quartet, not Goose, the Connecticut-based jam band currently setting the improvisational circuit ablaze. The confusion is understandable, but where Goose deal in sprawling explorations that can easily stretch past 20 minutes each, Geese are more concerned with controlled chaos, with songs that feel like they might fall apart at any moment but never do.