deerhunter Tag

Atlas Sound’s prolific Cox adds hooks to spacy beauty

With apologies to the memory of James Brown, Bradford Cox might be the hardest working man in showbiz (well, at least the indie music scene). Between his band Deerhunter, other side projects, and Atlas Sound, there’s never a shortage of his material to access. But the adage “quantity doesn’t equal equality” can frequently be applied. Though Cox can never be accused of putting out garbage, the sheer volume sometimes begs for some editing and consolidation.

So it is nice to see that Parallax, his latest Atlas Sound long player, seems to have been reigned in a bit – and has been invested with some solid melodic hooks. Where Parallax still has the bedroom-pop noodlings consistently found in Cox’s work, songs like “Shakes”, “Mona Lisa”, “Praying Man” (with a little harmonica) and “My Angel is Broken” all hint at Cox’s appreciation of 60’s girl group pop, and its inherent catchiness. There are still plenty of quieter moments, like the gorgeous (and appropriately titled) piano-meditation “Doldrums”, and the gentle guitar of “Terra Icognita”.

(ps: If you like to hear what may have influenced this, check out the recently released “The Smile Sessions” by The Beach Boys. Quite excellent)

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