Deerhunter poaches the edges of psych-pop with "Halcyon Digest"

Hunters: adventurers, providers of the ancient world, not necessarily denizens associated with beauty and the ghostly but synonymous with adventuring, something which the Dixie boys of Deerhunter have got it down to the T with their new release.

Halcyon Digest

The Atlanta quartet released their fourth record “Halcyon Digest” Tuesday on 4AD records, following-up on 2008’s majestic “Microcastle”. Now the million dollar question is, do they deliver? Yes, one-day shipping included. The southern band definitely has a breakthrough album on their hands.

If “Microcastle” shifted towards the lyrical and acoustic, “Halcyon Digest” shifts towards full-blown pop Valhalla, grazing through auras of experimental melodies but still grounded solidly in indie rock sensibilities. Tracks are sunny-side-up psychedelic songs that will have listeners mesmerized under the spell of shining, fuzzed-out walls of sound.

Brian Cox’s songwriting and airy singing have definitely morphed towards crafting dense pop pieces that jump at you, and like the little cretins they are, don’t let go, crawl under your skin, and have you coming back for more. The sound is thicker this time around; the guitars, courtesy of Cox and Lockett Pundt, are louder and more overdriven, autoharps and pianos pop in and out at times and Moses Archuleta’s drums and Joushua Fauver’s bass provide sufficient low-end blasts to keep the pieces solid yet lofty. Electronic sequences and even a sax solo blow expected passages away with spontaneous harmonic interventions.

The record kicks off with “Earthquake”, a haunting piece of reversed drum loops and reverb stuffed vocals and ethereal string plucking but quickly shifts into second gear with “Don’t Cry”, a ballad-esque ditty filled with crunchy guitars and sugary melodies, akin to the bubblegum-pop of yesteryear but with a slightly darker and more mysterious edge, whether it be because of a slightly-hidden synth or the phantasmal backup croons, these danceable numbers harbor a hidden world of hypnotizing melancholy cast against the bright façade of  upbeat rhythms.

Elder Deerhunter fans will find the staple spacey acoustic tracks that have epitomized the band’s sound in songs such as “Sailing”, a tender ditty washed with the flutter of recorded crashing waves à la Neu!. While keeping shoegaze enthusiast happy with shimmering strings and textures, the record treads into more daring grounds incorporating a myriad of mystical sounds in their single “Helicopter”, a breathy piece composed of autoharps, reggae like loops and a mantle of reverb that will reel you in and then consider whether to let you go or not. The closer “He Would Have Laughed”, a nostalgic remembrance, showcases the facets of the Deerhunter sonic arsenal: visceral, tender, anguished and continuously expanding.

The singing is superb, ubiquitous and terrifying. Cox bellows tender melodies but his lyrics cast a long silhouette as in “Revival” where the exalting of a divine presence (“I’m Saved, I’m Saved”) is beset by the loss and feeling of being lost in corporeal world (“Freedom, silence, always/ This darkness). In the pastoral paean that is “Basement Scene,” (ironically), Cox croons the urgent “I don’t wanna get old, no” only to be mysteriously subverted later on to the “I wanna get old” and closes with the vexing “In the bluffs they know my name.”  

The hooks and swings of the record are almost unbelievable, floating from every corner of every song; they are unconventional and long-lasting. Exhilarating, fun and magical with the flourishes of classic rock and comfy harmonies, there are graces of beauty and grooves to be found every time. The musical and lyrical denseness of the record begs and demands various listens and thankfully for those eager listeners, it doesn’t seem to be much of a burden.  

Even if you trace the influences to classics such as The Jesus and Mary Chain and folk heroes such as Van Morrison, Deerhunter still astounds with its own brand of clouded indie-pop, solid and ethereal, laid back but unafraid to flaunt their punk sensibilities.

The beauty of the record lies in its eccentricity and eclectic mix of solid compositions. Gravitating between the joyous, exuberant, sensual, celebratory, mourning and haunting, “Halcyon Digest” is certainly more than a record or a compilation of songs, it is a palette of great artistic and melodic might and surefire candidate for one of the best records of the year and the band’s best effort yet. In a sea of gritty, grimy, lo-fi rock n’ roll, Deerhunter stands out because of its clear-cutting pop tones backed up by massive gusts of electric and acoustic instrumentation. It’s like having ice cream for the first time, you’d swear you’ve had it before, but it feels new and exciting and you certainly enjoy the taste of it, almost heavenly.

MAGIC MOTHERFUCKER