Album Review: Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Listening to Deerhunter's discography in chronological order is like watching the growth of a child with each album representing a milestone in maturing and development. The intuitive listener can enjoy a warm wave of nostalgia not unlike that photo album reminder of special moments that come rushing back from distant memories. The earlier Deerhunter albums are easy to identify on this faux timeline. Turn It Up Faggot is a bloody, raging birth that has no other directive than demanding to be heard. Cryptograms is that softer yet raw toddler that in it's best moments can amaze with each word it properly articulates and each confident step it takes toward getting someplace meaningful. Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. is a strong willed child beginning to form it's own ideas, thoughts and emotions and gains knowledge and poise with each small achievement and vote of encouragement. In 2010, occurring just like clockwork around two years after their previous album and following an EP release of unofficial studio exercises (as well as one from Bradford Cox's solo project Atlas Sound), Deerhunter offers the public Halcyon Digest. Will it be a restless, temperamental juvenile full of exploratory "experimentation"? A lovelorn, pubescent teenager unleashing aching, penciled poetry from a spiral notebook? Those may have been possible results if this now emboldened band had been impatient to "grow up" and attempted something that they were not "mature enough" to accomplish. As far as where it resides on this developmental thematic construct, that is to be debated. In brief, Halycon Digest is simply their most assured album to date and a testament to Deerhunter's dogged pursuit of exploration, details, clarity and perfection in their music.

This newly calculated approach on Halcyon Digest begins with the opening track. "Earthquake" sounds like anything but a Earth-shaking event; rather it is a removed observation of a planet-splitting event taking place in distant outer space. The track is intense and emotion-filled, building to a meaningful studio-modified crescendo while decidedly restrained, opting for beauty over dissonance. This commitment to loveliness is strung throughout the album connected by the best examples in the two early releases. From the mandolin plucks on "Revival" to the harpsichord plinks on "Helicopter", the painstaking attention to the instrumentation delivers these melodies in just the right manner that ties the whole album together. It is on "Helicopter" where Cox delivers his strongest vocal performance to date, a longing opining on drugs and their eventual diminishment. His voice is moving, hitting each tender note as the warmth rolls through, giving an emotive lift to the listener while each band member's pride is reflected in the song's performance.

Another noteworthy difference in Halcyon Digest is the interspersed quiet moments spread throughout the album. A song about loneliness, "Sailing" drifts along on sparse production featuring not much more than guitar and vocals over a subtle rhythm. However, the machine-like trickle of ambiance underneath is what makes the moment transcendent. Toward the end, when Cox bays for no one to hear, it is that sound of nothing that makes the track so powerful. "Basement Scene" is creepily inviting for a song about being stuck between the frivolity of youth and the perils of aging. Sounding like the darkest of Everly Brothers classics, the track creaks along on a hazy hum and a ticking clock via drumstick tap. Deerhunter influences are more obvious than ever on Halcyon as they reach into previously unexplored arenas. This is most notable on the Lockett Pundt-fronted tracks where the annals of alternative rock are on full display. One might have to check their Jesus and Mary Chain collection to make sure that "Fountain Stairs" is not a cover song. The lyrics even feature the word "Head". (If you don't know what I am talking about, don't worry. JAMC fans do.) "Desire Lines" has the insistent energy of a shoegazer classic that stretches out for over six minutes and finishes like the Pixies song "No. 13 Baby" where the interlocked riff and rhythm are so good that there is no other choice but to keep it going as long as possible. Finishing of the album is "He Would Have Laughed" with Cox back on vocals. The quirky beat and synth back and forth feel like a sunny Caribou track. It begins hopeful and resonant until the acoustic guitar and lyrics move to the front and the whole thing becomes oft-kilter up until the eerily abrupt ending.

Going back to the album as developmental signpost theory, Halcyon Digest seems to have skipped over its awkward teenage years, revealing a mature, full-fledged graduate with honors. Often when a band takes such a bold step forward into a more mature sound there is a eventual backlash and longing for more songs "like the old stuff". For me, there is no regret, only the joy of watching a band crawl, walk, run and hit the air soaring. Overall, there is barely a minor flaw to be found here, reminding me of a quote from Stephen Colbert I can paraphrase. Halcyon Digest: Great 2010 album or greatest 2010 album?

Download "Revival" for free here.  Purchase Halcyon Digest here.

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest