The second solo outing by Bradford Cox of Deerhunter is a breathtaking expansion on the laptop experiments of his first album and the dozens of songs that can be found on his blog, a wildly diverse collection of songs that range from warm guitar pop (“Criminals”) to bubbly electronics (Noah Lennox collaboration “Walkabout”) and washed out, shoegaze landscapes (the Lætitia Sadier-featuring “Quick Canal”); Logos may be the best example yet of why Cox is one of the most talented songwriters in indie music today.

Logos 1.0: Logos was originally scheduled for release last year, but pesky internet folks discovered that Bradford’s folder on Mediafire was totally open to public access. Demos for the album and the second disc of Deerhunter’s Microcastle were both leaked within hours and Bradford posted an unmastered version of the album on his blog and bitterly declared it dead. It wasn’t until earlier this year that he announced the album would live again, and we can all be thankful that he did.

Rating: 9.3 / 10

October 20, 2009
Kranky/4AD

What’s surprising about the soundtrack for Spike Jonze’ highly anticipated “Where the Wild Things Are” adaptation is just how cohesive it sounds as an album, without the context of the film (one could easily mistake it for a Karen O solo debut): brimming with an undeniably sweet and appropriately child-like energy, sing/shout-along sugar rushes like “All is Love” and “Rumpus” are well tempered by lovely instrumentals and ballads, the delicate “Hidaway” and Karen O’s beautiful rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Worried Shoes” being big highlights.

Rating: 7.7 / 10

September 29, 2009
DGC/Interscope

This new EP may be a bit of a victory lap after last year’s Microcastle/Weird Era Cont., but Deerhunter is not resting on their laurels: clearly using Microcastle as a jumping off point, Rainwater Cassette Exchange presents some of the band’s most accessible offerings yet, all be it with the unique touches that we’ve come to expect from them – like the highly tropical title track and “Game of Diamonds”, and the soaring, channel-flipping freak-out that ends “Circulation”.

8.3 / 10

Kranky
June 9, 2009

A side project by Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, Lotus Plaza’s debut bears a marked resemblance to that band at first listen – a lot of shoegazey guitar work and floating, sometimes inaudible vocals – but the sonic textures here are more insistent in their dreaminess (the title track is an Eno-caliber instrumental build-up), the melodies are filled with an unexpected reverence for pop of the 50s and 60s; not necessarily better than Deerhunter, but far more focused.

Grade: 8.5 / 10

Kranky
March 24, 2009

On their third album, Deerhunter move away from their noisy, instrumental sound in favor of something that sounds like a far more palatable and enjoyable fusion of 60s psychedelic pop and 90s rock, and the change is for the better: rather than challenging you with noise and distortion, most of Microcastle floats on catchy riffs and dreamy vocals, immersing you in it’s strange warmth and keeping you satisfyingly addicted.

Weird Era Cont.: Microcastle comes with a second disc of material that constitutes an entire second album entitled Weird Era Cont. While far less immediate and more of a stepping stone from their previous work, the extra disc is enjoyable, atmospheric, and far from just random bonus stuff.

Score: 4.4 / 5

August 5, 2008
Kranky, 4AD