Northampton four-piece Speedy Ortiz keep reminding us why we included them in our Best New Artists lineup. Their Carpark Records debut Major Arcana is due July 9, and we’ve now got a second taste of that very promising album. “No Below” features gnarled guitar and slack grooves as befits the band’s Massachusetts heritage, but singer Sadie Dupuis displays such a mastery of bent-yet-beautiful melody and relatable loner lyricism that there’s no mistaking the group for any of their talented forebears. “I was better off as being dead,” she sings before off-setting the idea with a little hard-won romanticism: “But I didn’t know you yet.” Unsurprisingly, Speedy continue to build steadily on the promise of their April noise-pop knockout “Ka-Prow!” (a non-album track) and May’s angst-addled ’90s throwback “Tiger Tank.”
