The eminent songcraft of Halcyon Digest seems to have made its way intact onto the record. Te Amo is a fine example, translating the blissful levity of Deerhunter’s Helicopter to a broader palette, with piano and synth arpeggios interlocking across the stereo spectrum as Cox croons plaintively: “We’ll go to sleep / We’ll have the same dreams”. And Mona Lisa is blessed by the kind of sleight-of-hand chorus that won many fans over in the first place.
There’s an immersive spatiality to Parallax. It feels like an intimate performance lost in a vast landscape. The cavernous Space Echo groans that haunt the corners of Amplifiers add a genuinely unsettling air to an otherwise chipper Cox ballad, and the supine, lilting opening chords of Terra Incognita open onto drifting choral plateaus and whispering textures.
Parallax weaves the plaintive folk demos of last year’s Bedroom Databank series with the canny avant-rock that have made his other band an indie favourite. In that way, it’s easily Bradford Cox’s best work to date.
BY LUKE TELFORD
Best Track: Te Amo
If You Like These, You’ll Like This : Weird Era Continued DEERHUNTER
In A Word: Intimate
