Album Review - Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Whoever normally listens to indie music is aware or has probably heard the name Deerhunter before. I, for instance, had just heard two of their songs, Never Stops and Nothing Ever Happened. Both tracks are dominated by layered and dense guitars with hazy/shoegazy vocals. That was exactly what I expected from Halcyon Digest, but instead I found a notable change in direction on this one.

I thought Joanna Newsom's Have One on Me was going to be the hardest album to get into this year, but these guys surpassed my expectations in that sense. At first it is a hard listen, one some listeners might even find boring, but once you're able to feel and understand the vibe of the album, then it will become one of the best listening experiences this year. I can't really explaing that vibe, somehow, you just have to feel it. Try listening to ir on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Was I obliged to describe it in words, it would be somethign like "lazy-nostalgic", a sound accomplished by once again, dreamy atmospheres, but with powerful melody hooks on each of the eleven songs, with some of them gaining a lot of repetition in your head after the album has finished. Most notably Memory Boy and Basement Scene, the latter one, taking more than just the word "dream" from The Everly Brothers's "All I Have to Do Is Dream".

I can't say that any of the four band members are virtuoso in any of their instruments, but what I can surely say is they hace a profound sense of musical composition. The lyrics may be nonsense, the music might be minimally accurate, but it certainly works as a whole, Once you get the vibe, that is. So try giving it a good number of spins before making your decision.

Deerhunter - Helicopter