Deerhunter
Halcyon Digest

Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest - 2010

Why review an album from 2010? Moreover, a Shoegaze-noise-dream pop album during the era of K-Pop and Hyperpop...

For a general discussion. Is it better to have a boring album with 1 or 2 dazzling gems or a less experimental album but with coherent inspiration from start to finish?

Of Deerhunter, with the unsettling Bradford Cox, I only knew Microcastle from 2008. In my opinion, it’s an album that promises and then disappoints: for example, the first 4 songs are little pop masterpieces but then everything becomes inconsistent with a noise-psych-ambient sound that doesn't quite make sense.

This morning at 6:30, the anticyclone of the hottest Italian summer ever turned on all the cicadas and their psychedelic chirping. I opened Spotify, searched for This is Deerhunter...and there I was, after the well-known Cover Me, stranded at Desire Lines...

...What a track, folks. It may have arrived past its time, but I find the same root from which Joy Division and post-punk took shape.

The rest of Halcyon Digest I leave to you and it cannot disappoint those who love the sounds of the Byrds and the best Barrett, or Brian Eno's minimalism and even the electric pop of R.E.M.

In short, a very successful album where there isn't a single song you wouldn't play for your girlfriend...

Back to the initial question: is it better an unlistenable album with two episodes of absolute excellence or an album with good and consistent compositional quality???