Deerhunter - Fading Frontier
7.5/10
Deerhunter are a pretty weird band. They float calmly around the space between Mac Demarco and Tame Impala, relentlessly bashing a synthesiser in the hope that they can get some kind of new robot noise out of it. This is shown simply on the track Leather and Wood, a slow jam that sounds like Modest Mouse took The Sugar Hill Gang’s Apache on a hot date. It stutters and jerks its way along, with space-like synths haunting the back of the mix. Breaker takes the Mac Demarco influences to their extreme, to the point that I was certain the first line was going to be “Viceroyyyy”. This album deals in opposites by flitting between sounding exactly like their influences and sounding totally unique. Ad Astra sounds almost EXACTLY like a Tame Impala song from two years ago, and really doesn’t go anywhere. It’s songs like this that could really benefit from an injection of their own style, instead of taking other peoples. Such a shame as it lets down an album with loads of potential.
7.5/10
