Album Review: Deerhunter - Monomania
- Written by Paul Stephen Gettings
As Deerhunter's searing performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a few weeks back showed us, quite a bit has changed with the band since the release of 2010's acclaimed Halcyon Digest. Bradford Cox, the man who wrote and sung the words "No one cares for me/I keep no company/I have minimal needs/And now they are through with me" on 'Helicopter', has seemingly left his metaphorical, and literal, bedroom to emerge as a bona fide rock and roll star on this new record, Monomania.
Like Parallax, Cox's 2011 release under his Atlas Sound moniker, this is a record that indulges in the singer's fascination with the glamour and romance of early pop music and rock and roll. But while Parallax was feverish, introspective and weighed down by the shadow of death and disaster, Monomania is exuberant, brash and frankly doesn't give a fuck.
The album was recorded on tape via 8-track recorders, giving the tracks a pop, crackle and fuzz that suits their uninhibited spirit. Such lo-fi recording techniques will hardly come as a surprise to anyone who has listened to independent music in the last thirty years, but Deerhunter really do have a knack of striking the perfect balance between dense, crunchy instrumentals and sparkling, inventive leads that breathe new life into the aesthetic. Despite a few lineup changes, the arrangements here are as tight as ever, clattering along hypnotically with a precision that recalls krautrock and the primal Bo Diddley beat of early rock and roll.
As usual, guitarist Lockett Pundt's single sublime songwriting offering to the record threatens to steal the show. On first listen 'The Missing' stands head and shoulders above the noisier Bradford-led tracks that populate the rest of Monomania, but on repeated listens the album reveals itself to have a more cohesive standard of quality. The title track and 'Back to the Middle' snarl and wail fantastically over a backing that is equal parts squalling glam rock and spacey post-punk. Penultimate track 'Nitebike' is a moonlit ballad adorned by Cox's surly croon, while album closer 'Punk (La Vie Antérieure)' is a racing acoustic strum that evokes images of leather jackets, convertibles and the California sunset.
While established fans may initially miss Deerhunter's trademark ambient textures and electronic flourishes, which are all but entirely absent throughout Monomania, this record's experiments and homages to the classic tropes of rock music have their own unique, irresistible charm that soon worm their way into head and don't mean to leave any time soon. A reinvention for the band, yes; but a triumphant one.
Monomania is out on May 6 and available from amazon