Weekly Release Spotlight: Deerhunter
Posted on 10/26/2008
Deerhunter
Microcastle
[Kranky]
Illegal love is what it is, really. Months before this week's official release of the Atlanta quintet's third effort, Microcastle, a number of fans still frothing over 2007's breakthrough Cryptograms already had a digitally leaked copy of the band's follow-up. This is nothing special nowadays, surely, but what is notable is what the outfit's famously reactionary lead singer and guitarist Bradford Cox decided to do about it: start selling the record digitally through iTunes and bundle the tangible version of the album with an exclusive bonus disc upon its release in October. Of course that bonus disc has now also been leaked. Woops. At least it's all out of love for the music, right?
In many ways, it really is a shame because with Cryptograms, Deerhunter became instantly known not only for their second wave shoegaze perfection or dress-wearing/fake blood-drenched live shows, but constructing their albums in such a way that makes listening to the real thing all the way through truly special. That album was sequenced with two distinct pop vs. noise halves in mind, and now Microcastle focuses on an unforgettable decline and rise throughout the disc's twelve tracks - an inverse parabola of rockness if you will. The hazy wash of guitar pedals and Cox's mumbling isn't so much the objective here as are the concepts of power and volume, but it still carries the trademark sound of a band exploring the connections between ambient atmospheres and punk freakouts.
Opening instrumental "Cover Me (Slowly)" bleeds into "Agoraphobia," which vocalizes the former's title as its kick-off lyric, and very quickly it's clear how intrinsically interlaced the pieces of this album will be. Cox's newfound vocal confidence leaps out too, unleashing it to the forefront without pause on tracks like "Never Stops" and "Nothing Ever Happened," which essentially bookend the album with its most listener-friendly moments (but still usher in both squalls of white noise and lengthy hypnotic outros to challenge while rewarding). When the album dips and sojourns creepily quiet territory in Microcastle's middle, à la Cox's solo project Atlas Sound, we fall into the metaphorical kingdom's moat, but rise right back out of it with tracks like "Saved By Old Times," because Deerhunter churn and transform structure as much as they do sound, keeping alive the journey of an album, even if everyone loves them too much to wait six months for its release day.
Stream: Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
Deerhunter will be playing at the Triple Rock on November 17th, with Times New Viking.
Written by Chris Polley, Radio K volunteer and host of Now Like Photographs.