Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has recorded under the pseudonym Atlas Sound since he was a teenager, and on his second proper solo release, Logos, he submerges the divine and ancient reason that tethers the universe into an inebriated kaleidoscope of pop memories. Cox is a smart enough pop music aficionado that he effortlessly fuses catchy with a DIY aesthetic of drone, loops, lo-fi, and ambient interludes to create his own vision of ballads riddled with despair, alienation, and forlornness.
The two tracks most blogged about this summer in anticipation of the release — “Walkabout,” a collaboration with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear that samples the '60s shuffle of "" target="_blank">What Am I Going To Do?" by The Dovers, and “Quick Canal,” which features the coquette-coo of Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier — are ruins processed inside Cox’s ramshackle rhythms. Tunes like “Shelia,” “An Orchid” and title track “Logos,” are subdued but upbeat, stuttering after bliss, hypnotized beneath brooding lyrics that evoke pop music’s cruel mistress: unrequited longing.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2009.