Another recommendation from me, mined from a misspent period early in the last decade of procrastinating on Pitchfork. This one came out in 2010 when I was at university, and the US site gave it a whopping 9.2 out of 10 indicating instant classic status. I had to see what the fuss was about. I think it stands up well today. Frontman Bradford Cox’s lyrics are often cryptic, and I’ve read various explanations of what the songs and the album as a whole is about. One of them suggests that the album’s title is about how we rewrite and condense our favourite memories into compressed versions, and the album’s dreamy, shoegaze-inflected sound might have something to do with that. Or that might be bollocks. I don’t know, it just sounds really nice in my ears. I hope you enjoy. – Tom
Not gonna lie, Tom, I’m excited for this one. Deerhunter has been a name on my radar for a long time but I’ve never quite got round to listening, but your promise of ‘dreamy, shoegaze-inflected sound’ is appealing. And the band have set themselves up by calling the opening song ‘Earthquake’ – I’m expecting something loud with rumbling bass, let’s see how wrong I am:
Well, whether I’m wrong or not, that’s one hell of an interesting way to start an album. Those opening percussive notes are intriguing as hell, even if I’m not sure how they’re making them. I’m not immediately sold on the voice in this opening section, but the gloomy, claustrophobic tone of the song is definitely doing it for me. As it makes its way towards the second minute I’m hoping for it to break, for things to change, and just as I think they’re not going to they do – but not in the way I expected. It felt like the song was barrelling towards a cacophony, but instead, in comes a beautiful guitar loop to elevate the whole track. I’m into this, the opener has caught me hard.
‘Don’t Cry’ throws me off from the start, though. I felt like we were heading into a dark, brooding album, but this song has a chirpier, almost sixties vibe to it. It’s still scuzzy, but there’s a brightness that the first song didn’t have. I’m not sure I like it. Let’s see where song three takes us.
Okay, we’re continuing on the more upbeat sound but there’s a definite appeal to the guitar line and the distortion on the song. Made my shoulders move immediately. So far, though, ‘Earthquake’ is on another level to what has followed it. I hope there will be more moments as compelling to come.
‘Sailing’ slows it down and this is really the first time I’ve been able to clearly hear the vocalist as they sing a simple song over a solo guitar. It’s pretty. There’s a Thom Yorke-esque tone to his voice at times here, which is always a plus for me. So far, the album certainly doesn’t sit still when it comes to style and genre.
And we’re flipping the lid again as we go to ‘Memory Boy’. I don’t know if I’m just getting caught up on the expectations that the first song gave me, but this is another that is a bit too chirpy sixties for me. All the ingredients are there and you can hear that this is a talented group, but there is something missing for me on this one.
I really like the heavy sound to the guitars and drums at the start of ‘Desire Lines’, but my enjoyment dims a little bit when he starts to sing. He’s just not doing anything that exciting vocally or lyrically on this one for me, and the fact that it is nearly seven minutes long is scaring me. Does this mean we are going to get an interesting switch up somewhere along the way?
Maybe it does. Around the halfway mark, there’s a really nice guitar line added to the song and it feels like the pace is building. I think it says something that I seem to enjoy this album and band more when the vocalist stops singing, considering voice and lyrics are usually my two biggest draws to a band. But I definitely don’t hate his voice, it just seems to be that the parts of the songs when he is singing are less interesting musically. If that makes any sense.
‘Basement Scene’ is killing me. The offputting sixties vibe has taken over completely. Not into this one.
But ‘Helicopter’ is a totally different beast. Deerhunter showed how interesting their musical decisions can be on the opening song, and the way ‘Helicopter’ starts is equally enthralling. When Tom talked about dreamy shoegaze, this is what he meant. This is an oddball song. I feel like I can occasionally hear the bubbling sound of a fish tank pump. But I love it. Best song since the opener. So far, I’m caught between songs that feel almost generic and derivative and ones that are so unique and interesting that I can’t think of much to compare them to. I could listen to this one all day, though.
With three songs left, and such mixed feeling on the album so far, will it end well or fizzle out? Well, ‘Fountain Stairs’ lands somewhere in the middle. It’s decent, the guitars sound great, but it isn’t grabbing me in the way that some others have.
I’m picking up that I like this band best when they start a song with a bit of a weird musical choice, and that’s what happens on ‘Coronado.’ The song ends up summing up my feelings on Halcyon Digest quite well, though – it has magic moments, particularly the start, but the vocals and the tone don’t quite get there for me.
We have a closing song that’s over seven minutes long, so that could go some way to deciding where I land on this one. Luckily, though, at least for the first couple of minutes, it sounds like it’s going to be one of the more interesting songs on the LP. The layering is great, the keys so high in the mix that they dominate, a great drum line – and the best the singer has sounded on the whole record. This is a cracking track. I’m nearly halfway through and it just keeps expanding, swell after swell of sound.
And what a beautiful way to end, the song sliding to a different soundscape entirely.
Well. That was an experience. Deerhunter certainly don’t sit still on Halcyon Digest and I really enjoyed the moments that I did enjoy. But there were also a few songs that did very little for me. It’s an album I’ll have to come back to, because I wonder if I got thrown off by the claustrophobic opener and was hoping for an album that had that vibe from start to finish. Maybe, now that I know that’s not the case, I’ll feel differently on the next listen through.
I’d call this a success, Tom, even if I did only end up loving the three or four songs that really spoke to me.
Words by Fran Slater and Tom Burrows
Picky Bastards 
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