The Details

DEERHUNTER

Monomania

Monomania isn’t a perfect album, but it might be the perfect album for Deerhunter right now. The Atlanta indie rockers’ previous full-length, 2010’s Halcyon Digest, played like a meticulously planned magnum opus from leader Bradford Cox and his mates. And Monomania sounds like a band happy to be clear of that burden. It’s raw and unfussy, and it rocks out like the Deerhunter that recorded the propulsive “Nothing Ever Happened” five years ago. So lo-fi in spots it could be confused for a rough cut, it’s also got hooks galore, even if Cox didn’t sweat over them this time. Take a few spins through the hypnotically chaotic “Leather Jacket II,” the twisted cow-punk of “Pensacola” or the foot-stomping grooves in “Back to the Middle” (Is it some rediscovered relative of “Shake Some Action”?!) and they won’t leave your head for days, even if they don’t put you in a Halcyon daze.