[E. Noisefield]

It's called Parallax and...... I'm afraid it kinda blows.

Its cover kind of dooms it from the start. Looks like the cover of a Muse album mated with the cover of a Frank Sinatra album and then malnourished the child that came out.

 

But covers aside, the album, upon first listen, is not really doing it for me. Logos had that wonderful "Quick Canal" tune that made the whole album, and great pop tunes like "Sheila". This just sounds like bored Deerhunter.

I'm a big fan of both Deerhunter and AS and Bradford Coxon in general, but after one complete listen, nothing on Parallax has made me stop and take notice.

Anyone heard it? Have thoughts? The pitchforkmedia types will love it based on presupposition, but I know Coxon is capable of higher quality work than this.

[Murmer99]

yeah, it isn't that good. Quick Canal is the best song I've heard from his entire solo work. I have a thing for Lætitia Sadier's voice (singer from stereolab, much better band than Deerhunter). I can enjoy Halcyon Digest just fine when I'm in the mood.. Basement Scene, Sailing, He would have Laughed are really good. I also think the album works as a whole but it gets boring pretty fast.. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and just feels mundane after a while. That's pretty much the way I feel about most of his music.

[E. Noisefield]

Originally Posted by Murmer99

yeah, it isn't that good. Quick Canal is the best song I've heard from his entire solo work. I have a thing for Lætitia Sadier's voice (singer from stereolab, much better band than Deerhunter). I can enjoy Halcyon Digest just fine when I'm in the mood.. Basement Scene, Sailing, He would have Laughed are really good. I also think the album works as a whole but it gets boring pretty fast.. it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and just feels mundane after a while. That's pretty much the way I feel about most of his music.

That's the thing.... when they're not brilliant, Deerhunter/Coxon are kind of boring. Like, everyone went nuts over Microcastle, but I thought the album was about 60% radness and at least 40% mediocrity. Halcyon Digest is better... I haven't paid much attention to the song names, but the one with the saxophone is badass; nice guest vocals from otherwise M.O.R. Cassablancas. Microcastle's best moments are PHENOMENAL, but I skip thru a lot of tracks.

Their early stuff is incredible, and Cryptograms was almost perfect. I love that album so goddamn much it hurts. Every moment of it.

Deerhunter has potential to be one of the better bands of this generation, and Cryptograms was no doubt one of the best of the last decade, but this Parallax album is tired and slow, and has nothing on the incredible Logos and its predecessor.