Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest

For all that Deerhunter is often perceived as "Bradford Cox's band", it's a measure of strength in depth that the standout on their fourth album is written by guitarist Lockett Pundt. Desire Lines is built around the tension between a plucked guitar line that falls as the riff below it rises, before unwinding into a soaring and shimmering chorus, and concluding with a near four-minute coda that ploughs on and on and on. It's beautiful and grand, as entrancing a piece of neo-psychedelia as you might wish for. Cox's contributions are none too shabby, either. Revival is sturdy garage pop, lifted into something lovely by imaginative percussion, and what sounds like a mandolin beneath the fuzz. Deerhunter aren't just revivalists, though: in the main this is timeless music, seemingly made with the conviction that loveliness will always be lovely. And on the seven-minute closer, He Would Have Laughed, the combination of effects, melody, harmonies and instrumentation results in a song that manages to look forwards and backwards simultaneously.