Birthday Ass - Head of the Household (2021) Hi-Res

The head of the household sets the standards, makes the rules, and can break them as they see fit. Priya Carlberg, vocalist, composer, and maestro leads Birthday Ass wherever she directs, and on Head of the Household, she announces her unique musical vision in boisterous fashion.

Birthday Ass toy with bubbling, vibrant chaos throughout Head of the Household but are always in complete control, allowing the natural flow of expression to move through concise, dynamic tracks. On “Sunlit Toes,” the steadfast beat never allows entropy to overwhelm, even as moments of creaking horns and attacking guitar and bass seem to threaten the integrity of the bouncing groove that propels the song. Your heart race accelerates on the sugar rush of “Jello,” which builds to a tense peak and then leaves you with a floating sensation.

The discord and tumult of improvisation are present in all of Head of the Household, but never feel treacherous, as Carlberg and co. confidently weave through a tracklist of diverse styles and sounds, from the surf-tinged-tremolo guitar on the back-half of “Spiced Twice,” to the intricacy and sparsity in the environment of the elevated nursery rhyme, “Buckle My Shoe,” and the open space bookended by disarray on “Plubbage Blubbage.” All the while, Carlberg’s expressive and piercing vocals emphasize and interact with each new sonic element; her voice is highlighted completely, literally through vocals but also in each enticing musical fragment.

Head of the Household is as flamboyant and celebratory of a romp as you’d expect from a band called Birthday Ass and is just as strong and assured as the title would suggest. It is an example of virtuosity that shuns pretension and revels in the delight of creativity, and a collection of exhilarating, masterfully crafted tunes expressed with effortless joy.