- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
Oct 26, 2010100Halcyon Digest goes by like a breeze, and when it's finished there's nothing better to do than play it again.
-
92We'll never be able to parse every lyric or tease out every technical intricacy - though somebody will probably try - but that is what Halcyon Digest is all about: nostalgia not for an era, not for antiquated technology, but for a feeling of excitement, of connection, of that dumb obsession that makes life worth living no matter how horrible it gets.
-
Jan 14, 201191Conceive it as DJ electronica that makes its point, starting all partial and halting before gathering itself to a properly modest climax. Except that it's played by a live band. And has OK lyrics. Smart, nothing‑-pretty darned intelligent.
-
Halcyon Digest isn't always a cohesive listen, but the record gels where it counts--it's all great.
-
90Only Deerhunter makes echoes without egos, grounding even Bradford Cox's most wayward divergences in an all-encompassing blend of simple rock stylings.
-
Upon repeat listens, there's not one point of Halcyon Digest that feels like it was overly thought out.
-
90Bradford Cox's jagged, swirling atmospherics reach an apotheosis on this hazy but blissful offering.
-
As one of music's most consistent bands, their ideas continue to surprise and astonish on Halcyon Digest's soaring highs.
-
Deerhunter has come into its own, and the halcyon result is not to be missed.
-
90Halcyon Digest is as comforting in its familiar feel as it is startling for its sonic variety.
-
Halcyon Digest is the perfect LP to spin twice, love unrepentantly, and walk away from. This refreshing tonic (poured from the cash bar of overrated newer bands) is straight from the heart of Mr. Bradford Cox, poet and purveyor of Deerhunter's zen pop psych.
-
Having defined its gauzy sound on previous albums, Halcyon Digest Deerhunter finds the group expanding it with knockout results.
-
For all its occasional lack of bite and drama, Halcyon Digest's tender, transgressive pop proves a fine and focused addition to a uniquely haunting body of work. Cherish it like you would a phantom limb.
-
The songs on Halycon Digest all feel familiar in a way, like warped versions of songs that played on the radio in some not-too-distant past; sort of how pop songs are portrayed in post-apocalyptic movies: as something to be cherished, because they're all too rare. [Fall 2010, p. 59]
-
While Deerhunter may not be a solo project--though a couple of the songs here were recorded solo--this band is the musical realm of Bradford Cox. And if he hasn't found the same amount of fame as Win Butler or even Avey Tare, then probably it's because the lethargically gorgeous world he has crafted isn't inclusive enough allow large numbers of people in.
-
80Throughout all this, though, lies a sense of warm experimentation that should feel familiar to fans of Deerhunter's unique brand of ambience-loving indie-rock. Halcyon Digest is simply another solid entry in the discography of a mighty band.
-
Halcyon Digest is bliss, it is Deerhunter's best album to date-their first not to belie some raptorial need to plum my ears with mooching loudness.
-
80With Halycon Digest, Deerhunter are dealing in an altogether different kind of tension. [Oct. 2010, p. 90]
-
80A rather lovely record...Fully audible at last, Cox's downcast lyrics invest these hazy tunes with gripping poignancy. [Oct 2010, p.90]
-
It's not as immediate as previous Deerhunter albums, but Halcyon Digest has an appeal all its own: It's as difficult to grasp - and as hard to shake - as a memory lingering at the back of your brain.
-
80Deerhunter might be fascinated by the vanishing tricks people play, but Halcyon Digest is a thing of unmistakable substance. [Nov. 2010, p. 113]
-
Deerhunter have long proved themselves to be one of the most inventive bands around and the most deserving of the boatloads of hype and bandwidth that has been devoted to their work. Halcyon Digest solidifies that notion even as they sound like they are evaporating into the ether.
-
80Deerhunter aren't just revivalists, though: in the main this is timeless music, seemingly made with the conviction that loveliness will always be lovely.
-
Halcyon Digest might be an easy listen, but it takes effort to digest. Brief moments of transcendence break through the album's cracked, depressed facade, though even those are fleeting.
-
80Halcyon Digest is a triumph of multilayered nuance, and repeated listens reveal its genius buried just beyond the obvious.
-
At the end of the first album on which he's managed to keep all of his organs inside his body, it's like Cox is finally letting us see his heart.
-
80With every album, Deerhunter strip away more layers of textural ambience and reveal what some fans knew all along: that they're a pop band.
-
80A great album, tweaked.
-
Familiar but undeniably brand new, Halcyon Digest is forty-six minutes well spent--a loop that can repeated as many times as you'd like. Stay patient. If you skip out on a track, you'll be missing something.
-
As they've made it to their fourth album, they've quickly become one of indie's most reliable bands, each new album bringing the promise of some of the year's best music.
-
Dec 20, 201078Most of the album could pass as solo recordings, like the slow-motion slumber of "Earthquake!" and the girl group gauze of "Basement Scene," but that's balanced with more concise, full band selections that sound like half-remembered 1960s pop songs.
-
Deerhunter has graduated, by degrees, from conjuring moods to writing proper songs, and fourth album Halcyon Digest finds Bradford Cox and company strip-mining new aural territory and toeing the line between structure and abstraction.
-
60Halcyon Digest is, to my mind, the best we've seen from Deerhunter, and a hint that their best is still to come. It's a fascinating document to study, but I'm not sure that makes it all great music.