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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
CD review: Atlas Sound, Logos
Posted by Shawn Goldberg on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has recorded under the pseudonym Atlas Sound since he was a teenager, and on his second proper solo release, Logos, he submerges the divine and ancient reason that tethers the universe into an inebriated kaleidoscope of pop memories. Cox is a smart enough pop music aficionado that he effortlessly fuses catchy with a DIY aesthetic of drone, loops, lo-fi, and ambient interludes to create his own vision of ballads riddled with despair, alienation, and forlornness.
The two tracks most blogged about this summer in anticipation of the release -- “Walkabout,” a collaboration with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear that samples the '60s shuffle of "" target="_blank">What Am I Going To Do?" by The Dovers, and “Quick Canal,” which features the coquette-coo of Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier -- are ruins processed inside Cox’s ramshackle rhythms. Tunes like “Shelia,” “An Orchid” and title track “Logos,” are subdued but upbeat, stuttering after bliss, hypnotized beneath brooding lyrics that evoke pop music’s cruel mistress: unrequited longing.
Equally striking is the album cover, an image of a shirtless Cox (who suffers from a rare disease) revealing the physical ailments referenced often when Deerhunter became popular a few years back and that originally stirred rumors that the singer was a heroin addict, anorexic, or possibly both. With his lanky arms and thin concave chest, Cox appears almost heartless, the image relaying a visual announcement of brutal candor, though Cox's face remains hidden by a Photoshopped lens flare that purposefully obscures his face in a burst of white light, as if he still desires anonymity despite the splendor and wonder he can discover and exhume.
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