Deerhunter / Monomania
Artist Deerhunter
Album Title: Monomania
Album Cover:
Primary Genre Alternative & Punk: Avant Rock
Format CD
Released 05/06/2013
Label 4AD
Catalog No CAD 3307CD
Bar Code No 6 52637 33072 4
Packaging Digipack
Tracks
1. Neon Junkyard (2:52)
2. Leather Jacket II (3:09)
3. The Missing (3:41)
4. Pensacola (4:00)
5. Dream Captain (3:02)
6. Blue Agent (3:30)
7. T.H.M. (4:19)
8. Sleepwalking (3:08)
9. Back To The Middle (2:37)
10. Monomania (5:19)
11. Nitebike (4:17)
12. Punk (La Vie Antérieure) (3:27)
Date Acquired 09/30/2013
Personal Rating
Acquired from Amazon
Purchase Price 11.49

Web Links

All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry:

Notes

Art Direction – Bradford Cox, Matt de Jong
Engineer [Assistant] – Gabe Wax
Mastered By – Joe Lambert
Other [Clothing] – Proenza Schouler
Photography By – Robert Semmer
Producer – Deerhunter, Nicolas Vernhes
Recorded By – Bradford Cox, Nicolas Vernhes
Recorded At – Rare Book Room
Barcode (String): 652637330724
Barcode (Text): 6 52637 33072 4

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foobar2000 1.2.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-10-03 16:31:49
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Analyzed: Deerhunter / Monomania
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DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
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DR6       -0.10 dB     -8.59 dB      2:52 01-Neon Junkyard
DR6       -0.10 dB     -7.47 dB      3:09 02-Leather Jacket II
DR6       -0.10 dB     -8.46 dB      3:41 03-The Missing
DR8       -0.10 dB     -9.58 dB      4:00 04-Pensacola
DR6       -0.10 dB     -8.04 dB      3:01 05-Dream Captain
DR7       -0.10 dB   -10.09 dB      3:29 06-Blue Agent
DR9       -0.10 dB   -10.32 dB      4:19 07-T.H.M.
DR6       -0.10 dB     -7.89 dB      3:08 08-Sleepwalking
DR6       -0.10 dB     -8.45 dB      2:37 09-Back to the Middle
DR6       -0.10 dB     -8.21 dB      5:19 10-Monomania
DR7       -0.10 dB   -12.57 dB      4:17 11-Nitebike
DR7       -0.10 dB     -9.92 dB      3:27 12-Punk (La Vie Antérieure)
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Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR7
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 856 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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Reviews
All Music Guide Review:

Review by Heather Phares

Before Monomania's release, Deerhunter described the album's music as "nocturnal garage" -- an accurate, if somewhat elliptical, nutshell explanation of what Bradford Cox and crew (who include new bassist Josh McKay and additional guitarist Frankie Broyles) are up to on this set of songs. After Halcyon Digest's nostalgic haze and the fragile beauty of Atlas Sound's Parallax, it seemed that Cox was drifting further away from the rawness of his early days. He breaks away from this insular turn on Monomania -- to a point. The album's first two songs, the unabashedly messy "Neon Junkyard" and riff-fest "Leather Jacket II," are the musical equivalent of blowing off steam after the more considered, delicate territory of Cox's recent past. It's not until "The Missing"'s chiming guitars and harmonies that Monomania offers something resembling Deerhunter's more recent output, and that song was written by longtime guitarist Lockett Pundt. Cox sometimes goes overboard with his fondness for abrasiveness, as on "Nitebike"'s over the top vocal posturing or the way the odd coughing/barking backing vocals shatter "THM"'s pretty reverie. More often, though, Monomania's willfully raw sounds adopt the tough persona and iconography of rock music with a capital R as shelter, like donning a leather jacket and a sneer as armor against life's hardships. Cox borrows Julian Casablancas' croak on "Pensacola" and Queen's lyrics on "Dream Captain," where "I'm just a poor boy from a poor family" is just one of the scruffy rock clichés that he celebrates. Deerhunter's more familiar introspection creeps into Monomania's "nocturnal" songs, where the band uses its dreaminess to channel the feelings the album's louder moments try to drown out. They do so especially well on the equally melodic and acerbic "Blue Agent" and the gorgeous "Sleepwalking," both of which examine the chasms between former friends and lovers with very different perspectives. The album may be most interesting when the band plays with its tough/vulnerable duality: the title track is a plea that sounds like it's on fire, while "Punk (La Vie Antérieure)" looks back on fearless days with tender acoustic guitars. At times, the album feels more meta than Deerhunter's previous music, a complex way of delivering songs that are often much simpler -- on the surface, anyway -- than usual. By turns raw and reflective, Monomania is about shaking things up; it's not as grand or cohesive as Microcastle or Halcyon Digest, but with repeated listens, its quick shifts in sound and mood feel more like different sides of the same coin than a split personality. Ultimately, it may be most remarkable for how easily Deerhunter can deliver catchy songs in any incarnation.

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