8.0/10
Acts in a similar way to Cryptograms in its merging of the past with a sound that overloads the emotional past with only fragmented recollection of the details, but just with slighter returns. This may be that Let the Blind doesn't overload the senses the way Cryptograms wall of feedback did, instead it plays into a quitter dream pop exploration of the Deerhunter sound. This makes for something that feels very intimate and personal, but also lacking any moment of complete transcendence through sound that makes Deerhunter's work so exciting.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Friday, September 4, 2015
Deerhunter: Fluorescent Grey EP
7.8/10
4 songs doesn't quite open the opportunities to meld your mind with a work the way a full album can, but Fluorescent Grey isn't quite trying for the same droning atmospherics that Cryptograms captured. Instead it ultimately amount to them in transit to their more psych pop Microcastle. And while it may mostly be Deerhunter transitioning all the songs are good enough to have fit wonderfully on Cryptograms back half along with Fluorescent Grey with its drony slur mixing into a pop song making it the obvious highlight and maybe their best song.
4 songs doesn't quite open the opportunities to meld your mind with a work the way a full album can, but Fluorescent Grey isn't quite trying for the same droning atmospherics that Cryptograms captured. Instead it ultimately amount to them in transit to their more psych pop Microcastle. And while it may mostly be Deerhunter transitioning all the songs are good enough to have fit wonderfully on Cryptograms back half along with Fluorescent Grey with its drony slur mixing into a pop song making it the obvious highlight and maybe their best song.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Joyce Manor: Joyce Manor
8.1/10
"You were drunker than high school" So, the pop punks seem to have finally made it out of there high school troubles. Well not exactly, while they have certainly gotten their act together tightening up the band and the songs, they still can't seem to get past the girls who broke up with them. Its less whiny though which makes it so much more palatable, take that along with some interesting lines about not being able to get their shit together and grow up and depression you have a a group that almost never hits the narcissistic pitfalls of their forefathers. Tales of drunkery and lost friends, and of course love, the never out stay there welcomes. Getting to the point in the end is Joyce Manor's greatest strength. Quickly hitting the most inventive parts of there songs and then ending. Constant Headache, the longest song on the album and the last clocking in around 3 minutes, sends off the album with an emotionally devasting finally reducing life to a constant headache only to be interrupted by gleaming moments of perfect happiness. Easily a sentiment that could come from a whiny teenager, but theres a sad acceptance of in the song of this statement in its devastated utterance, and with the guitar powered singalong that concludes the song we reach one of those perfect moments.
"You were drunker than high school" So, the pop punks seem to have finally made it out of there high school troubles. Well not exactly, while they have certainly gotten their act together tightening up the band and the songs, they still can't seem to get past the girls who broke up with them. Its less whiny though which makes it so much more palatable, take that along with some interesting lines about not being able to get their shit together and grow up and depression you have a a group that almost never hits the narcissistic pitfalls of their forefathers. Tales of drunkery and lost friends, and of course love, the never out stay there welcomes. Getting to the point in the end is Joyce Manor's greatest strength. Quickly hitting the most inventive parts of there songs and then ending. Constant Headache, the longest song on the album and the last clocking in around 3 minutes, sends off the album with an emotionally devasting finally reducing life to a constant headache only to be interrupted by gleaming moments of perfect happiness. Easily a sentiment that could come from a whiny teenager, but theres a sad acceptance of in the song of this statement in its devastated utterance, and with the guitar powered singalong that concludes the song we reach one of those perfect moments.
Deerhunter: Cryptograms
8.5/10 Must Hear
Ah, so we reach the point of noise drones indebted to a shoegazery of My Bloody Valentine, rather than the sharp pains of Sonic Youth's feedback. The main difference of course is that this packs a hazy beauty that suits Deer Hunter's psych pop ambitions so much better. Of course we don't immediately get a true pop song, rather remnants flowing through dense gorgeous feedback loops. Its like a memory in that effect, producing more of the feeling of the essence of being in the situation than the semantics of it. As the albums goes on the pinpoints of what makes us feel that emotion becomes clear, but a haze still remains and often elevates that feeling. Everything is instantly recognizable, the drones feel like shoegaze of the nineties and the songs immediately feel like dreamy psych pop of the past, except memories have crossed causing a beautiful coalescence of ideas.
Ah, so we reach the point of noise drones indebted to a shoegazery of My Bloody Valentine, rather than the sharp pains of Sonic Youth's feedback. The main difference of course is that this packs a hazy beauty that suits Deer Hunter's psych pop ambitions so much better. Of course we don't immediately get a true pop song, rather remnants flowing through dense gorgeous feedback loops. Its like a memory in that effect, producing more of the feeling of the essence of being in the situation than the semantics of it. As the albums goes on the pinpoints of what makes us feel that emotion becomes clear, but a haze still remains and often elevates that feeling. Everything is instantly recognizable, the drones feel like shoegaze of the nineties and the songs immediately feel like dreamy psych pop of the past, except memories have crossed causing a beautiful coalescence of ideas.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Deerhunter: Turn it Up Faggot
6.2/10
More in the mood of Sonic Youth noise freak outs than the hypnotic noise of My Bloody Valentine they would adopt, Deerhunter does show their poppier side more clearly here than it would on the front half of Cryptograms. The noise here means so little though, almost just to hide the songs from normality without ever having any bite the way Sonic Youths breakdowns always held.
More in the mood of Sonic Youth noise freak outs than the hypnotic noise of My Bloody Valentine they would adopt, Deerhunter does show their poppier side more clearly here than it would on the front half of Cryptograms. The noise here means so little though, almost just to hide the songs from normality without ever having any bite the way Sonic Youths breakdowns always held.
Friday, August 28, 2015
Destroyer: Poison Season
7.9/10
Initially opens on a sleepy note of strings and a bit of piano that gives way to synths then quietly returns to the strings. An opening interest due to its departure from Kaputt's meticulously dreamy synth pop overload, instead of the dream its like being put slowly to sleep by a man whispering beautifully abstract thoughts into your ear. Then its bursts into a return to Kaputt done by the E Street Band with a chorus of dream lovers on the run. Energy like this is never seen again on the album, it remains closer to the opener Times Square, Poison Season 1, but the sharp twist is puncturing in a way that scars for the rest of the albums. Whats most odd about Poison Season is that although its closer to Kaputt then anything else in his discography than any of his earlier albums, yet it never grabs on to that albums lucid dream drugged numb atmosphere. It oddly never feels that atmospheric though strings and synths are a constant. They never meld into each other the way they did on Kaputt. The strings stand by themselves quite a few times just playing off Bejar's voice and it almost registers as campy. Its obviously self conscious, but while it may just be funny in the moment those strings do build to a feeling of grandiosity, that while may not be a fully immersive, does give the songs a feeling of total romanticism and importance similar to that of Springsteen.
Initially opens on a sleepy note of strings and a bit of piano that gives way to synths then quietly returns to the strings. An opening interest due to its departure from Kaputt's meticulously dreamy synth pop overload, instead of the dream its like being put slowly to sleep by a man whispering beautifully abstract thoughts into your ear. Then its bursts into a return to Kaputt done by the E Street Band with a chorus of dream lovers on the run. Energy like this is never seen again on the album, it remains closer to the opener Times Square, Poison Season 1, but the sharp twist is puncturing in a way that scars for the rest of the albums. Whats most odd about Poison Season is that although its closer to Kaputt then anything else in his discography than any of his earlier albums, yet it never grabs on to that albums lucid dream drugged numb atmosphere. It oddly never feels that atmospheric though strings and synths are a constant. They never meld into each other the way they did on Kaputt. The strings stand by themselves quite a few times just playing off Bejar's voice and it almost registers as campy. Its obviously self conscious, but while it may just be funny in the moment those strings do build to a feeling of grandiosity, that while may not be a fully immersive, does give the songs a feeling of total romanticism and importance similar to that of Springsteen.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Beach House: Depression Cherry
8.5/10 Must Hear
Beach House's music has always been a towering figure to me in music. I came to them by the time they were chasing the biggest sound they could get, and while I always had admiration for being so impeccably crafted and huge it was exactly that which stood in the way of a possibility of loving them deeply. It was dream pop that I could not fade into. Depression Cherry marks a step back from their huge blown out song, and allows more space for the entrance I wanted. "and the unknown will surround you" Captures the ease with which Levitation slips me into the world through its hypnotic organs. Then a distorted guitar unlike and I've heard from beach house tears over a loop that slowly fades to the backgrounds. Space Song close out the strongest three song stretch of their career with a guitar that feels like a neon string winding through the cosmos rather than the grinding flare of Sparks. Depression Cherry's spacey elegance gives room for the genius of these simple ideas to flourish and take hold of your mind almost in the way you fall asleep.
Beach House's music has always been a towering figure to me in music. I came to them by the time they were chasing the biggest sound they could get, and while I always had admiration for being so impeccably crafted and huge it was exactly that which stood in the way of a possibility of loving them deeply. It was dream pop that I could not fade into. Depression Cherry marks a step back from their huge blown out song, and allows more space for the entrance I wanted. "and the unknown will surround you" Captures the ease with which Levitation slips me into the world through its hypnotic organs. Then a distorted guitar unlike and I've heard from beach house tears over a loop that slowly fades to the backgrounds. Space Song close out the strongest three song stretch of their career with a guitar that feels like a neon string winding through the cosmos rather than the grinding flare of Sparks. Depression Cherry's spacey elegance gives room for the genius of these simple ideas to flourish and take hold of your mind almost in the way you fall asleep.
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