Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

MINE

Boring.  Largely unintelligible.  The lead singer had a whiny voice.  Some of the songs had a repetitive loop-style sound that's akin to Chinese water torture.  I have mentioned I'm sensitive to sounds?

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

YOURZ

Yeah, I brought this on a whim.  I used to do this a lot, back in the days of vinyl.  I'd skim through the new releases, check the covers out and if something on it caught my eye, I'd take a chance and buy it.  But sometimes, forewarned is forearmed, so I would also scour the pages of my favourite music mags and ensure I was, at least, partially armed.

If I'd taken the time and read up about Deerhunter, I would probably have pretty much ignored it as another is the swag of post-rock (or post-hardcore or whatever the fuck it supposed to mean).  And when I got it home and listened to the first track, Earthquake, I wondered if I'd made a mistake.  This is an opening track that should have been buried at the back of the album somewhere.

Thankfully, the next few tracks redeemed them, particularly the Pixie-ish Revival.  I particularly liked the use of banjo in this track.  This is followed by my favourite track of the album, Sailing.  The starkly simply guitar and ambient sounds behind it perfectly set off the beautiful vocal line.  What a gorgeous track.

The album yields a a few more surprises, like the ambient-fuelled Helicopter and Coronado, a retro-sounding throwback.  And given this all came about because of whimsy, of wanting to relive those good old days, when vinyl was cheap and plentiful.  Thankfully, the experience was a good one as this turned out to be a chance well-taken.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For further information go www.myspace.com/deerhunter