"Taxes" is a single by American rock band Geese. The song was released on the 8th of July, 2025 as the lead single off of the band's fourth album, Getting Killed. Co-produced by the band and Kenny Beats, the song was recorded in January that year at Kenny's studio Putnam Hill in Los Angeles, California.[1] The release was accompanied by a music video featuring the band playing the song to a ravenous, cannibalistic crowd.
Geese began performing "Taxes" live as early as August 2024, when the band opened for Australian rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard on the Boston date of their world tour.
Music video
The music video for "Taxes" was released alongside the song's release on July 8, and was directed by Noel Paul. It features Geese dispassionately playing the song in a venue with an accompanying crowd of concertgoers. The first half of the video is shot with a handheld camera as it moves through the audience from the back of the venue to the side of the stage, capturing the song with a built-in microphone. At the song's drop, the structure of the video changes. The rest of the video is shot on a film camera with undercranked footage, along with an abrupt cut to the studio recording of "Taxes". The audience begins to thrash around in excitement, beginning to convulse and become frenetic while the band observes. Eventually, the crowd starts to assault and eat each other, with one cannibal bearing a likeness to the painting Saturn Devouring His Son by Spanish romantic painter Francisco Goya. The video ends with two shots of drummer Max Bassin with a drumstick skewering through his clavicle and Winter with a neutral expression.[2] Jon Blistein writing for Rolling Stone called the music video "a kaleidoscopic burst of moshing, shredding, and seemingly unfettered euphoria that quickly descends into strange violence and cannibalistic chaos."[3]
Critical reception
"Taxes" was acclaimed by critics following its release, with many praising the lyrics written by Winter. The Line of Best Fit in a positive review of Getting Killed said that the album's "delightful mix of tender love calls, historical anachronism, and biblical imagery, all come together to turn the joyous heartland ballad "Taxes" crushingly tragic."[4]Pitchfork rated the song the 10th best of 2025, saying saying it "stalks and sways on hollow, death-rattling drums and is reborn at its coda, exploding into a raucous pop melody helmed by Emily Green's sprightly guitarwork and Cameron Winter's street preacher squawk."[5] In their list of the 50 best songs of 2025, NME placed "Taxes" at number 2, describing it as "an inspired aural collage that merges stream-of-consciousness lyrics ('Doctor! Heal yourself!') with a musical release that conjures pure euphoria."[6]Exclaim! ranked it as the 3rd best song of 2025, describing it as "cryptic, a bit ridiculous, and the most glorious, zeitgeist-grabbing rock song in years."[7]
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