Atlas Sound
Parallax
4AD / Playground

Parallax is the third album from Atlas Sound aka Bradford Cox, the lead singer from the Atlanta, GA psychedelic/ambient/rock band Deerhunter. It succeeds the critically acclaimed Logos (2009), and the even more so Deerhunter-album from last year: Halcyon Digest. But there ends the comparison of Cox' projects.

Parallax takes Atlas Sound in a more lamented and ambient direction than his previous work. It presents a soundscape made of nostalgic sci-fi elements, left-over pieces from the darker sides of 60ies dream-rock, and vast fields of solitude. Yet there is melancholy in almost every pretty note, there is also beauty, hope and fragile strength. And the shadows of the past, gets overthrown by the very joy-full contemporary pop-mix.

"The Shakes" is the opener, and it does just as the title suggest; shakes the album into motion, through the playful longing in "Ti Amo", the electrified pop of "Mona Lisa" (where Andrew van Wyngarden from MGMT plays piano), the tragic magic of "Angel Is Broken", followed by the forlorn, yet utterly sweet "Terra Incognita", until the closure in delusive happy-faced "Lightworks". And in between there are avant-pop highlights in almost every tune.

Atlas Sound has yet again delivered an album that is beautifully demanding, and in its own subtle way - a musical bonfire.

Copyright © 2011 Aslaug O Klausen