Monomania

Anyone looking for the title Monomania to serve as a “witty” by-line for their review of a repetitive, mundane record is to be sorely disappointed.  The only irony here is that an Ahab-esque singularity of focus has never been a musical trait of the Atlantan quintet Deerhunter.

As well as being one of the most prolific acts in the business, they’ve also been one of the most diverse.  So far, Deerhunter have proved themselves to be equally capable of crafting the haziest of dream-pop, shuddering walls of noise, and tracks apparently suitable for remixes by trap/banger-purveyors like Diplo and Lunice.  As such, the latest professed metamorphosis of their sound into comparatively stripped-back garage-rock comes as no surprise.

Whilst much has been made of the ‘avant-garde’, dark and noise-based aspects of this record though, Monomania might actually be their most accessible release yet.  The moments of sonic detritus and distortion which ‘Leather Jacket II’ attempts to force its way through – and which are particularly highlighted on the title-track’s clattering decomposition into the sound of a clunky lawnmower engine – are elements that are actually few and far between.

Instead, though the lusher moments of Halcyon Digest are at a premium, there’s a plethora of elegant, emotive and engaging tracks laid out amongst Deerhunter’s wares.  ‘The Missing’ captures a down-tempo Strokes-vibe perhaps better than Casablancas & co. have managed since Room On Fire, and the shoe- gaze vibe of ‘Sleepwalking’ allows a particularly devastating sense of regret and self-awareness to simmer beneath the reverb: “When a decade is spent searching / For something time will never bring / Something starts to shut down inside.”  There’s even a place for the breathy, almost uncomfortably intimate, lo-fi acoustic strumming of ‘Nitebike’.

“They’ve maintained both their natural compositional ease and expression, and their knack for an acutely satisfying sonic hook”

Between these well-handled polarities of sound on the record however, there are undeniable flaws.  Much of the record’s midsection appears cut from the same cloth, and though there’s nothing inherently wrong with the listening experience –each individual song hinges on some appealing riffs, textures and choruses – there’s a certain memorability lacking in the material.  ‘Pensacola’ doesn’t ever really lift off the ground, and ‘Dream Captain’ suffers a similar fate; even lyrically, the themes and narratives of romantic escape blur into one another.  Whether it be a jilted lover’s trip on the Greyhound bus to Florida, or into nautically-located sexual submissiveness, the core sentiment feels the same.

However, despite these gripes, the adeptness and imagination which has grounded so much of the band’s output is a rewarding feature throughout.  Despite their fragmentary and diverse spectrum of sound, they’ve maintained both their natural compositional ease and expression, and – perhaps even better – their knack for an acutely satisfying sonic hook or outcrop – whether haunting or heartening. Though Monomania doesn’t quite hit the same previously-scaled heights here, the unity of these artistic features which  condition their ability for consistently high-grade material still very often produces the goods.

Similar To: Pavement, Liars, Thee Oh Sees

MP3: ‘The Missing’, ‘Sleepwalking’