It may end angrily, but when it’s all said and done, Microcastle is a blissful retreat from the known.
The resulting 2xCD set captures urgent and imaginative songs that reorganize 4AD haze, off-kilter indie pop, crashing garage-punk, forward-leaning krautrock, and hypnotic Kranky ambience into a singular-sounding call-to-arms.
The bolder sound signals that Deerhunter is now less concerned with the scarring effects of loss, conflict, and the passage of time, and more concerned with the ways to escape those things—even if that escape is fleeting.
Where the split-personality of Cryptograms hinted as much, a cohesive effort on Microcastle delivers the goods in its entirety.
The sounds on Microcastle form a lush landscape.
Microcastle proves that Deerhunter can make music that sounds very different from what they'd done before, yet still feels of a piece with their body of work.
Though Microcastle is hardly straightforward, it’s an aggressive step toward the mainstream that sacrifices none of Deerhunter’s woozy adventurousness.
Microcastle, the second full-length from Atlanta’s Deerhunter, sees Bradford Cox and company reining in-but not abandoning-the pervading experimental impulses on their sometimes arduous 2007 release, Cryptograms. The results are phenomenal.
Deerhunter went after making more of a cleaner pop album, and they absolutely succeeded. They still have traces of their signature sound, but they’ve added in new elements that will attract new listeners while keeping the old ones. Microcastle leaves you satisfied, and high hopes for the future of the band.
That something–decode Cox’s anxious lyricism for what that might be on your own time–is what makes Microcastle Deerhunter’s most arresting and certainly most lasting record to date. At the very least, it shows the band is giving a fuck.
Microcastle ... wisely digs in and develops a single coherent sound. The band settles on a neo-shoegaze approach, layering blankets of fuzzy guitar texture to exquisite effect. And they complement their newfound stylistic focus with their tightest batch of honest-to-God songs to date.
Whilst 'Microcastle' isn't the luxurious home of some of the best songs of our time, but it very much wets your appetites for things to come. It's definitely not a subtle cry for attention instead it takes the form of affirming their status as one of the most experimental, dynamic, exciting bands of our time.
Continuing the convention-defying structure that Deerhunter pioneered with Cryptograms, Microcastle starts slow and spirals into something much larger.
Microcastle may be Cox and company’s great leap forward, or a mere stumble on the way to a much different band. After an album like this, they just can’t stay the same.
Microcastle could be 4AD's best release in well over a decade.
Microcastle is a glorious confluence of idioms, a surmounting of chaos en route to dream-like galaxies; a defiant pair of rods held up to the faces of naysayers calling for the head of alternative rock. Deerhunter we love you.
They carefully steer Microcastle; shedding the reverb and refining their songwriting to a point where they sometimes barely resemble the gang who endured the turbulent sessions of their first and second records to produce a cohesive, striking amalgam of all that they have learned so far.
Microcastle is a defining step in Deerhunter’s newfound direction that shifts weight towards a more open and free indie-pop sound with a unique shoegaze finish.
There are enough electro-shock moments of jolting feedback to counteract the somnambulistic lull, to make it interesting, to ensure the beauty is measured. A real treat. Let it wash over you.
Where Cox's Atlas Sound output is scattered and eclectic, Microcastle, Deerhunter's third album, is focused and consistent.
Smartly, Microcastle stops short of alienating, an adjective more than a few scribes have lobbed at Cryptograms.
On the group's third album, the usually extroverted singer, known for sporting dresses onstage, seems to be withdrawing, embracing a more delicate, acid-dipped sound. Microcastle has only one rave-up, but it's a killer.
Deerhunter’s latest effort presents itself as a slight revival of the original ambient rock movement with more of a pop based expansion on to it.
By discarding the hazy ambience of Cryptograms and revealing their winsome heart, Deerhunter have rewarded those who applauded their bravery and may even convince the doubters that they are as significant an act as their fans have faithfully prognosticated.
Bro has a skull in his eye đź’€ "Microcastle" is overrated as hell. It is decent indie rock and that's it. It's not special or beautiful or eye opening or particularly unique, it just good indie rock. People calling it "Imaginative" are seeing something different , because I don't hear it. It's defiantly not as creative as Cryptograms sonically. All the songs on this album coast on a 7/10 until Calvary Scars, then it turns into more of a 6/10. Nothing Ever Happened is the ... read more
Micro my assssssss
This is such a good indie record. I just love the feeling to it, I just love the songwriting. This whole album has a "feel" to it and whenever albums have that sort of idea, it immediately gets me more invested. I do think some tracks are okay but most of them are great. Love love love this thing. Solid record
Cover Me Slowly/ Agoraphobia - 10
Never Stops - 7.5
Little Kids - 8
Microcastle - 5.5
Calvary Scars - 8
Green Jacket - 9
Activa - 6
Nothing Ever Happened - ... read more
indie rock meets shoegaze and its INSANE
might become one of my favorite albums ever wow
UPDATE: same rating, but have to say this grew on me even more
people saying Calvary Scars-Green Jacket-Activa is filler are just flat out wrong, it's a change of pace for sure, but it adds a whole new dimension to the listening experience
I don't say it a lot but this album sure is a grower, give it 2 or 3 listens and im sure you'll get more from it each time
top 3 most underrated album I've ever listened ... read more
The first 5 songs are SO incredible, especially the intro and its following track. So warm and buzzy.
1 | Cover Me (Slowly) 1:21 | 90 |
2 | Agoraphobia 3:22 | 95 |
3 | Never Stops 3:04 | 90 |
4 | Little Kids 4:22 | 87 |
5 | Microcastle 3:40 | 86 |
6 | Calvary Scars 1:37 | 80 |
7 | Green Jacket 2:09 | 78 |
8 | Activa 1:49 | 75 |
9 | Nothing Ever Happened 5:50 | 93 |
10 | Saved By Old Times 3:50 | 82 |
11 | Neither of Us, Uncertainly 5:25 | 87 |
12 | Twilight At Carbon Lake 4:23 | 92 |
#1 | / | Tiny Mix Tapes |
#4 | / | Beats Per Minute |
#4 | / | Treble |
#5 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#5 | / | Pitchfork |
#6 | / | No Ripcord |
#7 | / | PopMatters |
#7 | / | Spin |
#9 | / | FACT Magazine |
#10 | / | Paste |