Sunday 18 February 2007

Deerhunter - Cryptograms

The Deer Hunter is a movie. "Deer Hunter" is a game. Deerhunter are a band that sometimes gets called Deer Hunter. Deerhoof are somebody else. Source(s): Twenty-five years on Earth, Google.

Of course, even the second recording session's highly melodic space-outs aren't fully coherent. As Cox laments in "Hazel St.", "The subject is always just out of frame." At this point, with an album called Cryptograms, you're weird if you haven't been wondering what, exactly, the encoded message might be-- if, in fact, there is one at all. I like to think it's that Deerhunter are a pop band.

After all, while Cryptograms presents its own obstacles, it's easily enjoyed as a whole. Memorable melodies and an awkward, charismatic narrator are often peeking from behind the dissonance-laden mists that self-consciously choke them. From The Velvet Underground & Nico to Sid and Nancy, the sweetest romance of the rock underground's life was always death. And the tragic beauty of Cryptograms, as to an extent with Cooper's novels, is the way something as innocent as pop can be so mercilessly corrupted-- and due to the ensuing tension, emerge as better art for it.(RS)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

forgive me if rockgenie = Marc Hogan...

that said, shouldn't you put quotes around this text? or at least give credit to Marc Hogan of Pitchforkmedia.com for writing it?