NUMBER 9: “DESIRE LINES” - DEERHUNTER - FROM THE HALCYON DIGEST LP ON 4AD RECORDS

“Desire Lines” finally makes good on all of the promising press that I’ve heard about Deerhunter for about four years now. In interviews and profiles, frontman Bradford Cox is often painted as a music lover and record enthusiast that has leveraged his passion into inspired and varied songwriting. Outside of their 2008 single “Nothing Ever Happened”, I’ve never heard that. I’ll agree, Cox and the rest of Deerhunter do come across as real music fans but their music has never struck me as much more than kids imitating their heroes. And doing a poor job of it at that.

            But damn if I don’t love “Desire Lines”. Maybe it’s the relative absence of Bradford Cox – this one is written and sang by guitarist Lockett Pudnt and his low-key vocal delivery blends into Deerhunter’s hazy sound much better than that of Cox. More likely though, it’s just the maturation of the band’s song writing. “Desire Lines” is excellently paced and its layered distortion is given the time that it needs to stretch its legs and lock into its groove. The shoegaze-y, wall of sound that makes up the entire back half of “Desire Lines” finally lives up to the hype and while they still aren’t exploring any particularly new ground or finding any new sounds, I’d say with this song – and a lot of Halcyon Digest- they’ve finally recorded a worthy homage instead of more boring imitations.

BONUS: As good as “Desire Lines” is on record, it’s even better live. At least, that seems to be the case judging by Deerhunter’s appearance on Spinner.com.

2010 Top 10

9) “Desire Lines” - Deerhunter

10) “Your Sweet Boom” - Jamie Lidell