release - deerhunter - halcyon digest

type: album

released: 28th september 2010

label: 4ad

genre: dream pop, art rock, neo-psychedelia

Deerhunter are annoyingly consistent. It could be because they're so prolific – they've produced two solo efforts between them in the two-year gap between their last release and this, their fourth album, so there's obviously a lot of spare energy kicking about. The result is that every Deerhunter album is excellent, the focused efforts of several talented people. Of the three albums that preceded it, Halcyon Digest has most in common with Microcastle and its companion disc Weird Era Continued, leaving behind the garage punk of their debut and the krautish ambient of Cryptograms. Jerky riffs and abstract vocals still abound, but this is very accessible.

What Halcyon Digest has over its immediate predecessor is balance. Microcastle had its best parts at the beginning and a forgettable middle section, whereas this is both cohesive and, while it doesn't always reach the highs of Microcastle, is engaging throughout.

Earthquake isn't actually earth-shatttering, though the band are more than capable, but actually breezy and glitchy, an atmospheric opener warmed up by Bradford Cox's laid back and undemanding vocals. It's testament to the band's ability to pretty much craft ambient songs out of their production techniques. What they don't do this time however is take that to its logical conclusion, leaving such experiments firmly in Cox's bedroom. Instead, a simple idea can sound big and lush, and this glossy sound is heard throughout.

When the sheen is removed things get interesting. On Sailing, a simple set of percussion and lonely guitar get behind Cox as he sings a plaintive, spaced out ballad, whose placing on the album is bold and succeeds where the equivalent tracks on previous efforts felt like they needed fleshing out. It only sounds like Atlas Sound in as much as it's written and sung by the same person, but the inclusion of a single song this intimate on a Deerhunter album is a very clever move. Poppy Helicopter is the antithesis. Uplifting and spartan, it runs at a perfect pace and Cox's vocals are sweet and immaculate without sounding robotic, building up but always staying gentle.

Everything else on the album is somewhere between these two, with a lot of distortion and attitude added along the way. Coronado is a standout for its catchy buildup that gets straight to the point, before culminating in a jazzy swell. Desire Lines starts off with swirling vocals and guitars lined up in orderly repetition, but has an instrumental send-off that allows the band to add in every last studio flourish they can without spoiling the broth. The broth is thick and consistent.

This is great album by Deerhunter that doesn't do a lot to challenge the sound we're used to hearing but does nothing to tarnish the reputation either. A welcome addition to the pile.