Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest (album review)

When I first listened to Halcyon Digest, I didn't like it at all. Why? Because the album is painfully simple on first listen - I thought they were being lazy. Instead of focusing heavily on the atmosphere that gave past releases a hazy, shoegaze feel, Deerhunter have decided to rely almost entirely on their post-punk influence and pop hooks. That kind-of pissed me off at first, sure, but I knew well enough to give it another chance, and I'm glad I did; Halcyon Digest is a seemingly simple album - about the memories and inspirations that shape us - that gets more complex and rewarding every time you listen to it.

The album constantly references memories from the band members pasts. And they aren't just singing about their influences from the past, they're sounding like them too. "Don't Cry" sounds like Bradford relating to youth about his own past via a throwback to 1950's pop acts. "Coronado" – with saxophone used about as tastefully as it could be – brings on vibes like David Bowie used to. On "Desire Lines", Lockett Pundt (one of two songs he sings lead on, a first for Deerhunter) sings about reclaiming his youthful resiliance, a song which features the kind of kraut-rock inspired jamming that made Microcastle/Weird Era Cont the winners they were.

Singing about the past doesn't mean they always sound like it though; songs like "Helicopter", "Earthquake", and closer "He Would Have Laughed" sound like an amalgmated progression from Bradford's Atlas Sound and Lockett's Lotus Plaza camps, carving out sounds that are as unique as they are ethereal; accoustic guitar gently drifts in and out of the background on "Earthquake", crashing drums slowly blur into "Helicopter", and "He Would Have Laughed" is a sprawling procession of layered instruments coming and going around a simple melody and a gently repeated guitar part. Plenty ethereal.

Deerhunter have made an album packed with catchy hooks, which means the drawn-out (but wonderful) jams of past releases are now few and far between (we've got "Desire Lines", but it's not quite the same as "Nothing Ever Happened"). And while that is dissapointing, this album isn't about them treading the same musical ground again; it's a celebration of the road traveled.