Microcastle
Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox has established himself as a critical part of the indie-rock scene. His music is unpredictable and sometimes challenging, but even in his most experimental moments there is a vulnerable human-ness that makes it accessible. *Microcastle* puts Cox and his band firmly on the path to producing cohesive songs with beginnings, middles and ends, and they’re not just songs with all the right parts; they’re astoundingly accessible and memorable to boot. Guitarist Lockett Pundt’s contributions — on vocals as well — are a real plus, and from the lulling “Agoraphobia” to the ‘60s pop charm of “Little Kids” and “Saved by Old Times,” *Microcastle* offers plenty of well above-average indie pop. Cotton-candy shoegazer “Never Stops” has a sad, lyrical feel, and “Calvary Scars” and “Activa” are wrapped in the ambient twinkle of Cox’s solo work as Atlas Sound. The gloriously dreamy “Neither of Us, Uncertainly,” and the Yo La Tengo-ish “Nothing Ever Happened” are strong contenders for Best of Show, but we give the award to the purely Deerhunter “Microcastle” which fools us all for the first two minutes with its airy, twee weightlessness before morphing into a sonic tsunami.
Deerhunter wants to stay put. To be locked in windowless rooms. To never age. To sleep. To be dead. In a way, it's ironic that the Atlanta band gets tagged as punk, even when it's attached to prefixes like "psych," "ambient," or "art": Punk music agitates for upheaval, but Deerhunter seeks only stasis. "I had a dream…
The narcotic drones and fragmented art punk Deerhunter explored on Cryptograms made the album a love-it-or-hate-it proposition for many indie rock fans; where some heard eclectic expansiveness, others heard incoherent experiments.
modern post-everything song writing at its most interesting...Since the release of their eponymous debut in 2005, Deerhunter have occupied an underground space carved of white noise-noodling and illuminated by front man Bradford Cox’s obvious preoccupation with Lou Reed and Brian Eno.
The album arrives with a host of existential questions that Bradford Cox and Deerhunter have entertained before but have never fully answered.
<p>The bizarre and beguiling Bradford Cox outdoes himself again on his Brooklyn-based band's third record</p>
Deerhunter - Microcastle review: Deerhunter focus their energy in a new pop-oriented direction with Microcastle