Rating: NNNN
Deerhunter are known for changing their sonic patterns album after album, and their latest effort once again shakes up the status quo.
Monomania bounces through a mass of noisy rock ‘n’ roll, and for the most part it’s gritty and raw. But The Missing is essentially an indie pop song with a buzzing synth, and after that it’s Pensacola, a punk-cum-southwestern ditty with Lockett Pundt (aka Lotus Plaza) on steel guitar.
At the helm of this perpetual shapeshifting is Bradford Cox, possibly the most exciting and weirdest anti-frontman of current indie music. (Always outspoken, he’s not afraid to trash-talk Morrissey or respond to a heckler’s request for My Sharona by playing an hour-long noisy rendition of the 70s power pop song.)
Monomania somehow makes Deerhunter’s previous albums sound like they were controlled and constrained, as if it took four albums for Cox to finally be the shit disturber he’s always wanted to be.
Top track: Monomania
