Not familiar with Atlas Sound? Listen to this album and your soul will thank you!
Previously, we had two Bradford Cox’s. We had the Deerhunter front-man Bradford Cox, wearing dresses on stage, spilling beautiful crunch and buzz from the amplifiers. We also had Atlas Sound Bradford, the ambient recluse. In “Parallax” we get both. This is Atlas Sound: Beyond the Bedroom. Songs seem to be made around more conventional structure rather than the ambiance and haze that would defined them in earlier albums. All of that experience in astral, nebulous, soundscaping has not gone to waste however. Rather than being the focus of most of the album, it’s dropped in at all the right times. Several songs will make you stop what you’re doing and force you to admire their beauty the first few times you hear them. The guitar is the primary instrument in this album, and their sound is treated much in the same way as the previous Deerhunter album (Halcyon Digest) but I feel like this is the setting they are the most at home in. All in all, “Parallax” is further proof of Bradford Cox’s exponentially growing dominance of the absolutely-gorgeous-spacey-rock market. Also, a great listen and one thats gonna stay in my shortlist for a long time.
Reviewed by: Marc Schroeder on October 28th, 2011
RIYL: Deerhunter, Real Estate
Recommended Tracks:1,3,4,5,6,9,10
FCC Warning: None
Label: 4AD
Release Date: November 8, 2011