Deerhunter
Monomania (4AD)
Reviewed by Austin Powell, Fri., April 26, 2013
Deerhunter
Monomania (4AD)Deerhunter's sixth LP borders on a Bradford Cox solo album. More than anything else by the Atlanta indie band, it captures his complexity as a songwriter – frail yet abrasive, pushing back only to pull further in. Employing a couple of eight-tracks, "Neon Junkyard" starts in the red, overblown and overexposed. Another diamond in the rough, "Leather Jacket II" buries a cradling guitar riff behind a layer of lo-fi noise, while "T.H.M." treats the sound of a hacking cough like a tambourine. Conversely, "Back to the Middle" and "The Missing" take cues from 2010's acclaimed breakthrough Halcyon Digest, with bruised portraits of troubled characters. Like Cox, Monomania is an enigma, wrapped in distortion. (Sat., 11:30pm, Reverberation stage)
