Atlas Sound: Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel
Kranky
2008
Rating:


"Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel" is a debut album that gives poignant voice and melody to the unhealed adolescent scars incurred since Deerhunter's Bradford Cox started recording solo material under the name Atlas Sound at the age of 12.

For the now-25-year-old Cox, some of those scars are literal. Cox suffers from Marfan Syndrome, a disease that results in gangly limbs and cardiovascular problems. When Cox was 16, he spent a stolen summer in a hospital undergoing surgeries because of the disorder. "Quarantined" movingly concerns that hospital stay while also touching upon the plight of child AIDS patients isolated because of their disease. "Quarantined and kept so far away from my friends," Cox sings. "I'm waiting to be changed."

More often, "Let the Blind..." deals with psychological and emotional wreckage. "Recent Bedroom" details Cox's difficulty dealing with the death of an aunt ("I could not cry / I don't know, I don't know why"); "Winter Vacation" is the vivid experience of seeing a landscape through the eyes of new love ("I've seen waves, hushed and soaked in static"); and "Ativan" relates wanting to sleep through a lover moving on ("I slept while you had lunch / Lunch with a girl who takes time to listen to every word you utter").

"Let the Blind..." may be about Cox's childhood hang-ups, but they're dealt with through an awe-inspiring grasp of sonic maturity. Listening to "Let the Blind..." is to be set adrift in glacial, disorienting ambience. Sometimes it can be a cacophony of surprisingly harmonious noise, as in the clash of xylophones and African percussion instruments on "Quarantined." "Winter Vacation," "Cold as Ice" and "Small Horrors" are chilly yet emotionally effecting works of enveloping sound. "Scraping Past" wouldn't have been out of place on Radiohead's last four albums. "Recent Bedroom," "River Card" and "Ativan" sound like "Nuggets" of 1960s and 1970s acid rock and proto-punk.

All of it is deeply moving. It's a truly haunting experience, like listening to Brian Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets," My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless," Radiohead's "Kid A" or Spiritualized's "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space."

Cox leaves blood on these tracks – the blood of a sad youth, the blood of a profound musician.

Posted Sunday, February 24, 2008

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/atlas.sound/let.the.blind.lead.those.who.can.see.but.cannot.feel