Two and a half years after the pandemic broke, it’s hard to remember what those early days felt like—back when we thought we’d just have to stay in for a couple weeks and binge Tiger King until it all blows over.

It was that landscape that Disq released their debut record, just a few days before the word “lockdown” started being used. All the hopes wrapped up in their debut were dashed as tours were canceled, venues were closed, and just about every musician ever competed for our limited attention via intimate livestreams.

But if that put a damper on Disq’s ambitions, you can’t tell from its follow up. Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet is a post-genre free-for-all that juxtaposes 60s jangle pop with bursts of noise rock, 90s slacker rock with coy electronics, and wide-eyed sonic anarchy with an undeniable popcraft.

Saddle Creek Records has a long roster of bands indulging in adventurous genre cross-pollination, from Bright Eyes marriage of folk, indie, and electronica to The Faint’s sneering dance punk to Cursive’s whole deal. Disq is right at home with these pioneers, and might actually explore further than any of them had even dared. Desperately Imagining… is a truly unpredictable record, with a constantly surprising sonic palette.

In a way, it sounds like the cumulative Covid-adopted-hobbies all spilling onto the tape at once. While the rest of us were making sourdough or playing Animal Crossing, the members of Disq were carefully dissecting and reassembling pop music and its hundreds of derivations. Swinging country western, noisy hardcore, lush punk, and affectless post-punk intermingle like friendly strangers at a party, somehow avoiding any awkwardness in their incongruencies.

But perhaps the most arresting moments are when they pause their explorations to set up camp in a particular style and just offer a great song. “If Only” and “Meant to Be” are more straightforward than their discmates, offering a plaintiveness that reminds me a bit of Elliott Smith with full band accompaniment.

Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet is a rare record that throws a ton of contradictory ideas together in a way that manages to give each thought room to breathe. It’s bustling with ideas, but never crowded. Expansive, but never scatterbrained. It’s wholly ambitious, but it is endlessly playful. It’s a massive statement that manages to rush by like a breeze.

Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet is out October 7th on Saddle Creek.

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