Have you ever felt like you just wanted something to end?
Only to realize, post-finish, that you can’t help but want more? It’s like a
white-knuckled rollercoaster ride, where you pass through the exit out of
breath, begging for more.

Okay, maybe a rollercoaster is a bad analogy for Halcyon Digest, the new release from
Deerhunter. In the thrill department, the album is more akin to a creeping
train ride from Baltimore to Des Moines. Pleasant, yet stuffy, with window
views that tread the line between “meh” and “sort of interesting.”

Never a band to rattle the walls, at least in previous
albums, Deerhunter left the listener with something exciting right off the bat.
Such tracks can be invaluable to pull one in and garner some appreciation for
the whole shebang throughout its lifts and its lulls. Here, songs like “Don’t
Cry,” “Memory Boy” and “Helicopter” cast the hook short, scaring the listener
away from what is otherwise an interesting effort.

The problem with Halcyon
Digest isn’t entirely the failed catchiness. It is just so long, plain, and
stuffy. The dense sound they have always utilized now lacks applicability for
the greater part and works against their goals. A foggy sound is cool in its
place, but it’s time to decide when to turn down the effect pedals,
particularly on the vocals.

Now, it isn’t a proven fact that what goes down must come
up. But in the case of the pedals, it holds true. The same thing that kills
their sound at times tends to have the reverse effect at others. If it weren’t
for the thick atmosphere at key points in “Fountain Stairs” and “Desire Lines”
for example, they might lose the bit of mystique they manage to hold onto from
previous releases.

That mystique is what turns the album around and
unconsciously mesmerizes. Somehow, a few hooks snag you by the shirt with no
promise of release. Kind of like a parasite, but with a little more give
supplementing their take. (Bravo, another failed analogy).

Perhaps it is impossible to sum up Deerhunter in a simple
metaphor. There is something deeper to them, something beyond the murky haze of
reverberating vocals and slow builds. Halcyon
Digest doesn’t quite match up to the brilliance of, say, 2008’s Microcastle, but during high points it
lives up to expectation, an expectation unfairly crushed by a handful of
unforgivable songs.

A melodramatic beauty materializes after resetting hopes, to
skeptical and checking expectations at the door. They even tried some new
saxophone instrumentation in “Coronado,” the energy in which certainly
qualifies as an upbeat rock success.

Assisting the success, a bird’s eye view of the album still
reveals the Deerhunter aura that has carried them this far. They would never
produce something to turn your back on as a whole. And as a whole, Halcyon Digest certainly works at a
satisfactory level. Pleasant to the point of listenability, it just meets the
mark. There is no doubt that it deserves at least a few plays, just don’t
expect a rollercoaster ride. 

2 stars