ATLAS SOUND – LOGOS

Deerhunter certainly have received their share of accolades in the last few years, thanks in equal part to lead man Bradford Cox’s visionary songwriting and the band’s unique musical apocalypse. Bradford’s solo project Atlas Sound brings out the bedroom music nerd in the lanky singer, allowing him to explore even more abstract structures and murky sounds. The problem with this latest album from this prolific professor, lies in this very method. Whereas his work in Deerhunter heightens his musical prowess with the band’s sturdy arrangements and impassioned fullness, it seems that when left to his lonesome, Cox’s vivid imagination runs perhaps a little too freely. Instead of presenting us a diverse, full landscape, this album comes across as unfocused, indistinct, all over the place. There are some great moments hidden among the mayhem, such as the spooky Walkabout featuring fellow reverb experimentalist Panda Bear, but as a whole it suffers from a lack of continuous melodic development or thrilling sound palettes. It’ll please the die-hard fans, but I think Cox is capable of much much more.