20 Watts

Atlas Sound's Logos

WE GIVE IT: 15/20 Watts
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Last August, Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound, Deerhunter) accidentally released an unfinished version of Logos on his Mediafire account. He debated scrapping the project altogether after the unintentional leak, cursing the interwebs with “fuck this shit. I can just make another album. It’s not finished and now it never will be.”

It’s safe to assume that Cox has since forgiven us — he did, after all, complete this album. Now the question becomes whether diehard fans will forgive him for the major style changes on this LP.

Logos differs enormously from Atlas Sound’s debut album, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel. It’s less experimental and more accessible, with fully realized tracks that can stand alone on their own merit. In fact, it makes more sense to look at Logos as a continuation of Deerhunter’s Microcastle/Weird Era Cont., rather than the next step in Cox’s side project.

The sunny first single “Walkabout” features Noah Lennox (Panda Bear, Animal Collective) and his signature Brian Wilson aping. The song’s minimal lyrics and central riff, sampled from The Dovers’ 1965 track “What Am I Going to Do?” blend both pop and experimental sensibilities, a technique that becomes the album’s focus. Similarly, the mid-album “Quick Canal,” a 13-minute instrumental on the original leak, was shor tened to almost nine and graced with lyrics written and sung by Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadiera.

Logos shows that Cox has grown tremendously as a songwriter. Few artists can find the middle ground between accessibility and experimentation, but on this album, Atlas Sound nails it.

– Ryan McManus