Halcyon Digest (Digi)

Halcyon Digest is simply a beautiful album. The production is lush and detailed, which compliments the band's more dreampop-leaning sound on this album perfectly. This is more of a pop album than Cryptograms or Microcastle, and only one song ("Desire Lines") features one of Deerhunter's characteristic guitar drone/jam-outs. That said, the songwriting here is mature and tight, and there is at most one song on this album that's skip-worthy. In my view, the second half is stronger than the first, but this is a solid listen all the way through and will likely be one of my top albums of the year. Top songs: "Fountain Stairs," "Desire Lines," "Helicopter," "Coronado."

Last years Atlas Sound album "Logos" from the Bradford Cox inspired side project was a wicked delight and therefore it is a pleasure to report that his primary source of music making namely the band "Deerhunter" originating out Atlanta, Georgia have come out firing on all cylinders on this brilliant fourth album. That said a slight problem may be in store for those of you still deeply smitten by the 2008 double album and wall of guitar noise beast "Microcastle", since this is altogether a very different proposition. Praise or blame for this must be partly apportioned to the presence of Ben Allen at the mixing desk, this is the man who after all conjured up the sonic alchemy in terms of Animal Collective's 2009 genre defining masterpiece "Merriweather post pavilion".

Check out the watery and sweet "Helicopter" on Halycon Digest and try not to note the presence of otherworldly elements which Avey Tare, Panda Bear and co teased to the forefront on Merriweather (and for good measure also seek out one of the plethora of mixes of this song on the net not least the joyous Star Slinger mash up every bit the darker cousin of Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead"). Truly, truly wonderful stuff in both guises. Then you have the latest single "Revival" a mix of Brian Wilson like "Smile" induced psychedelia and 70's glam rock. This deserves to a chart smash and of course pigs will fly. The six minute plus "Desire lines" alternatively suggests that the Cox might have had an advance copy of the Arcade Fire's "Suburbs" and is full of minor baroque and theatrical flourishes leading up to a storming conclusion which has become the Montreal minstrels signature sound. The Guardian has said of this album that it is "timeless music, seemingly made with the conviction that loveliness will always be lovely" and no where is this more apparent than on the epic album closer "He would have laughed" dedicated to Cox's friend the late Jay Reatard which is a two part song that shifts from a rolling bubbling synth pop with almost a Baba O'Reilly motif to a shift at 5 minutes into a darker song punctuated by contradictory lyrics such as "I lived on a farm, yeah/ I never lived on a farm" which ends so suddenly you despair the CD may be scratched or blotted by a dirty fingerprint. Along the way to this glorious final destination you will encounter other fine songs such as the slow acoustic "Basement scene" which sounds like Buddy Holly on acid, the thumping "Memory Boy" a pop song of such excellence that the British Quality Foundation should investigate and the sax driven "Coronada" which is almost a dirty rocker in this albums context.

This is an absurdly endearing record and even after the first listen you know that you are partaking of a dish to which you will return for afters. There is absolutely no reason why Deerhunter and Bradford Cox in particular shouldn't be names whispered in hushed and hallowed tones around the world of rock/indie music and the phrase "next big thing" attached to them without fear of ridcule. "Halycon Digest" is an album that Cox and Co have threatened to make over the past decade and aren't we especially grateful that they have delivered in full.

A halcyon is a mythical bird said to have the power to charm the wind and waves into calmness. Deerhunter do just that on their latest release, Halcyon Digest.

Maybe the album title should have given it away, but when I pressed play I expected a fourth dose of their complicated, partially-disruptive instrument style wrapped around Bradford Cox's mid-toned, pace-setting voice. Maybe even a track that sounds like the band is tuning their instruments or forgot for 33 seconds that the "On Air" sign was illuminated. None of that lives on Halcyon. What you get this time from Deerhunter is a greater calmness, more patience, and a perfectly listenable collection of songs. And you will happily take it.

The album moves freely inside a short range of sounds. From the atmospheric, and surprisingly gentle opener, "Earthquake," to the more pepped-up and jangly "Revival" Halcyon just doesn't roam wild. What catches this listener by pleasant surprise is the undisrupted, melodic style; the simplicity of the patterns in the songs; and how much more I appreciate Bradford Cox's voice as an integral part of the listening experience.

The back half of the album is more traditional Deerhunter with the punchy "Desire Lines" and ghosty and semi-distant "Basement Scene," but overall still greatly restrained. At no point do the guitars run away with it or does a song just drop off into oblivion or morph into some stacked loops of percussion, vocals, and strings. It holds tightly together to the finish. Now, I do love the "two-fer" songs, where the front of the song and the end of the song sounds like they came from two different places giving you a two-for-one kind of feel (a la "Nothing Ever Happened" at the 2:00 mark where you "never saw it coming"), but with Halcyon it's an effortless 45 minutes soaking in songs with soft, round edges.

The album finishes with "He Would Have Laughed," a tribute to the late Jay Reatard and, even though pushing 7 1/2 minutes, cuts short at the end, just like Reatard's own life.

Halcyon strikes me as the album that will net droves of new fans for Deerhunter. It's palatable to the masses, sing-a-long-able, has some catchy hooks, and introduces a cool factor to the iTunes collection of all those Coldplay fans. This is the album that will result in the acquisition of Deerhunter's back catalog and, for the savvy, an investigation into Cox's solo work under the Atlas Sound moniker.

Trail Map: Air - U2 - The Beatles - Animal Collective

Score: 80/100

If you listen to only one: Desire Lines

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