Album Review: Dan Deacon - America

The second you start listening to Dan Deacon's new album America you feel disorientated, as opener Guilford Avenue Bridge shows so much aggression that you wonder what may have happened to one of music's constantly smiling faces. From Guilford…'s harsh electronic distortion and manipulation, second track True Trash sounds more familiar with its bustling eclectic weirdness and the sound of an octaved-up chipmunk-sounding Deacon wailing in the background. There are so many changes from the synthesizer-happy last album Bromst, with the use of woodwinds, strings and a more noticeable variety of percussion and looping effects.

First single Lots is typical Deacon, a frenetic electronic groove bubbling over to hyper-pop territory as he wails through distorted microphones with almost unrecognisable lyrics. Prettyboy, although owning a similar build up to Slow With Horn, has such a new interesting sound, really showcasing Deacon's skills as a musician with piano periodically taking the forefront despite being buried in a sea of electronic ambience ending with a medieval-sounding horn melody and Celtic strings.

Crash Jam is an array of electronic distortion that at first you think you can skip over, but then the song changes so much throughout that you can't stop listening. The album ends with a series of tracks underneath the banner of USA I-IV which clock in at 21minutes, which has this Sufjan Stevens Age Of Adz grandeur to it that sends you through an array of emotions in the truest metaphorical sense of a rollercoaster ride. 

Bromst happened three years ago. America is clearly the future, quite possibly the best Deacon album to date and definitely one of the year's great pop releases so far.