Deerhunter looks a little different than it used to (they’re now a quintet, and they have a new Josh on bass), but the band hasn’t quite shaken the post-Strokes garage rock habits that were etched into 2010′s Halcyon Digest. Even from here Deerhunter has taken it to the proverbial “next level” with the noisy, unrelenting “Monomania” – the first single off of the band’s upcoming album of the same name. Ragged guitars, deranged vocals, and wild shifts in fidelity combine into an assaulting bliss; a lengthy vocal coda of “mono-monomania” – shrieked until Bradford Cox is hoarse – puts the whole thing to bed with a melancholy uncommon to such bombastic music.
Legitimately innovative and interesting guitar rock – especially under the umbrella of punk – has been on the decline for a while: perhaps only Deerhunter are left to fight for it, tooth and nail. There is a venom and a darkness to “Monomania” that has been creeping to the fore since 2007′s Cryptograms; this, coupled with the band’s renewed interest in straightforward guitar rock,could make Monomania Deerhunter’s most vicious and electrifying slug of an album yet.
Deerhunter – “Monomania”
Monomania