This album is so odd. For some reason it just screams pop to me. Like it's all big fat Crayola shapes and strictly primary colors. For such an artsy band this is actually really left-field to me. Does anyone else feel that way about it?

Yeah FKA, whoever leaked this album is kind of a bastard... I understand your point of view given that the album doesn't even have a concrete release date. Kind of sad actually, but at least i'm not the one that leaked it, so i don't feel too bad about having it really early.

More listens are opening this album up to me. It's definitely more "accessible" and would, using the earlier SY comparison, be the Goo to Cryprograms Daydream Nation (that sounded better in my head than when i typed it). Nothing tops Daydream Nation (like, ever), but this feels like a cleaner version of Cryptograms, distilling their experimental tendencies into relatively short pop songs. Their ambient tendencies still shine through, but are now hidden beneath catchy songs.

I just wish the drums were higher in the mix. I don't know why, probably because i listen to drums mostly, but whatever.

Well. Everyone I know is a bastard for leaking the air out of my ego. If we're going to get all guilty about shit, let's get guilty about being happy when other people "out there" are sad. Deerhunter already have something most people would give their third arm for.

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I just wish the drums were higher in the mix. I don't know why, probably because i listen to drums mostly, but whatever.

Nope. I've got to call you on this. That would be a big mistake as the drums are already too prominent and too simplistic as it is. In fact, the album is about as transparent as it gets. Every sound effect and guitar strum is apparent to the point of obviousness. I'm torn between loving this and having a curious disdain for it.

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Originally posted by goathouse's enlarging prostate:

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I just wish the drums were higher in the mix. I don't know why, probably because i listen to drums mostly, but whatever.

Nope. I've got to call you on this. That would be a big mistake as the drums are already too prominent and too simplistic as it is. In fact, the album is about as transparent as it gets. Every sound effect and guitar strum is apparent to the point of obviousness. I'm torn between loving this and having a curious disdain for it.

Yeah, i play drums, have for like 12 years or something now, so i always like the drums mixed higher with this type of music. I felt the drums were a bit simplistic, however, i want to hear them more. It's just how i am... Steve Albini's production... err, "recording" is pretty much what i consider the best out there. So maybe that illustrates how loud i like drums.

Explain the music's transparency though? I'm still listening, but maybe you can convince me to hate it should you feel the need.

Well. I'm not really trying to make a case for it's poorness, as much as stating a fact of my hearing. This is a highly premeditated affair, this album. Everything in it's right place, so to speak. I can say one thing for sure though; "Nothing Ever Happened" is an instant classic.

So...I might be misunderstanding you, but you think think it's too minimalist, goat? I personally am not feeling this way. I am feeling similarly towards "Nothing Ever Happenned" though.

No, not minimalist. It is, however, sparse, but conditionally. If you're like me, your ears have been trained to filter out superfluous elements of music, mostly as a byproduct of always trying to pick out individual elements. When the drums repeat simple drum loops throughout the whole album without very much deviation from a basic 4/4 rythme, my ears tend to reduce them down to one unit. In a sense, the drumwork of the entire album is reduced to "1". There are other similar redundancies on the album, but like I said, I'm not sure how I would rate it yet.

I listened all the way through again (that's like 5 or 6 times now), and I'm thinking this album reminds me of the Clientele a bit. I like it, and think Deerhunter may get a lot wider of an audience with this album... could be wrong about that, though.

Deerhunter is quite possibly my favourite band right now, and I'm going to talk about my experience with them.

Turn It Up Faggot:
This album was very sparse and chaotic, leaving most tracks to just repeating minimal lyrics over distorted reverb. There are possibly only 2 lyrically deep tracks; the first being Adorno, which is beautifully catchy and well written... and mayhaps Language/Violence... but mostly Adorno. This record was some chaotic psych rock done right, as far as I'm concerned. I constantly revisit it, blowing my 'Adorno' play count through the roof, along with 'Language/Violence', 'Tech School' and 'Oceans'

Cryptograms:
Holy fuck, what a change. Gone is the chaos, brought in is a hazy, MBV reverb crazy record. The title track giving a very easy sway to itself before losing itself in distortion and the beautifully placed 'There was no sound's. With a total of 6 (if you don't count 'Octet's constant verse), the album is a consistant trip.

'Lake Somerset' to me just makes me want to fucking break everything to my room and set it on fire, whether it be my closest possessions or people.

Now, I don't know about you, but 'Octet' could very well be my favourite track off the record. Just the way it starts with the gentle ambience and minimal baseline, progressing and picking up more echoed voices and hazed out guitars, and eventually esaclating to an almost danceable track. It crashes and burns as it spirals out into phantom hallways. I love it.

Cryptograms would be nothing without talking about 'Spring Hall Convert' and the brilliant placing of 'Strange Lights'. Spring Hall is Bradford Cox's testament to his depression caused by his Marfan's. The accompanying music re-enforecs the emotion with gentle, fragile and tragic guitars and extra reverbed vocals. Strange Lights comes out in a sedated state of happiness that compliments Spring Hall's mass depression.

Lastly is the Fluorescent Grey EP, which is a solid compilation of single-esque songs, the standout for me being the title track. I guess I have a thing for repeated vocals, as Cox repeats 'People never really know'. The whole album has a particular feel to it, which I can't explain. Fluorescent Grey and Dr.Glass both touch on the subject of rotting bodies... but someone could help me out I guess. Wash Off is also kick ass.

I'm currently listening to the surprise-leak Microcastle, and I'm quite pleased. It doesn't capture me like Cryptograms, but it features (in my opinion) their most accessible track to date: 'Never Stops'. I'll talk more about it as I listen to it more. What I can say is that Cox seemed to write this in a seemingly sedated happiness. Do correct me if you feel the need to.

The most exciting moment of the album comes when the drummer switches to the ride cymbal at around the 4:55 mark of "Nother Ever Happened." Agreed, that song is an instant classic.

Man I don't get it. Cryptograms sounds incredibly amateur to me. That album was a waste of money

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Originally posted by harrisonOWNSmccartney:
Man I don't get it. Cryptograms sounds incredibly amateur to me. That album was a waste of money

That's why music is subjective. And why on Earth did you buy that record if you didn't hear their stuff prior? Was it because you liked the first album?

I 'm still trying to find Gondolin...

Cryptograms isn't for everyone, but I think it's the best shoegaze album in years. It brought some new elements to a pigeonholed genre: aggression and emotion. It turns the shoegaze "dream-state" to a sort of nightmare-state.

RadiantSilvergun was dead on when he said "Lake Somerset" makes him want to tear stuff apart - it's supposed to. The first half of the record is supposed to be a discombobulated, angry mess. Even the instrumental Pygmalion-era Slowdive tracks have a dazed, unsure sound... As if the band is trying to figure out just what they feel. These tracks flow into the angry stomp of the vocal songs where they pinpoint and express these feelings. It's intense, sadistic, and cathartic; this is the sound of the mental illness that is depression.

When the haze of the first half wears off, the album goes into a clearer stream of consciousness. It expresses its feelings of alienation, sadness, etc. and delves into childhood memories ("Hazel St."). Though the overall vibe of the first half is still present, everything is in focus, everything is concrete, everything has direction and purpose. This is the sound of therapy... The "guide" giving "direction in "Strange Lights" might be a psychologist, and the "strange lights" may be EMDR. Notice the pace of the album gains momentum with each song as the healing process nears completion. The singer is getting better!

After the session is over (designated by instrumental track, "Tape Hiss Orchid"), Cryptograms finally goes into acceptance with the joyus "Heatherwood". "In the beginning, the world was a mess," says Bradford Cox, "When one life is over, a new one begins." It's as if the depressed individual has undergone such a change they're like a new person and "Was not seen again." If the album feels emotionally draining, that's because it is.

I haven't heard any other shoegaze album play with the listeners' emotions quite like this one... Brilliant, classic!

Give it time, harrisonOWNSmccartney, this is a grower album - its beauty is in the details.

By the way, I love Microcastle as well. It's not as, er, conceptual as Cryptograms, but a great album doesn't have to have a theme - just great songs. Its got those.

I bought it because I had gotten tons of recommendations from friends who said it was amazing. I don't flat out HATE the record, I'm just surprised at how simple it sounds. And most of the "Shoegaze" stuff on the record isn't shoegaze at all. It's like two chords with a ton of echo and reverb. None of the brilliant pitch bending madness and swirling guitar tone of real shoegaze records. It's like half wanna be shoegaze, half amateur kraut rock. But you are completely correct that music is subjective. Musical tastes are highly personal so this is just my perspective.

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By the way, I love Microcastle as well. It's not as, er, conceptual as Cryptograms, but a great album doesn't have to have a theme - just great songs. Its got those.

There. Right fucking there, I think you just hit what Bradford Cox was trying to say about Microcastle vs. Cryptograms. He spoke about not making the album as long-winded as Cryptograms, and also appreciating the 'micro-structure'.

What I'm getting from your post and what Cox said was that he didn't want the album to be as much as a grand concept, rather just be a collection of songs over a particular period of time.

Of course, I could be despicably incorrect. Flame away...

microcastle is so fucking good. probably my numero uno on the year.

Yes it's probably just edging out Mount Zoomer for my favourite of the year, I think.

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I'm just surprised at how simple it sounds.

Yeah, it is vaguely see-through, but I'll be damned if Cox doesn't have a pretty good muse. That guy can pop of a technically sound record like some people take a jerk. It's amazing really.