Alli's Articles
INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS, CULTURE PIECES, MUSICAL RAMBLINGS.
When the summer first started, I told myself I needed to start writing about music more often. There are multitudes of possible reasons for this; maybe it’s to build up my resume since college is coming to a close for me in a year. To save myself from boredom. To rant about the music I love to a platform that might actually read it. To remind people that this blog exists.
After the commencement of the solstice, I’ve found myself going on a lot more drives with the sun peeking through the trees, sprinkling itself all over my face, allowing the cool air that smells like rainfall to seep into the car. During these late June endeavors, I’ve had the strongest urge to listen to one artist in particular to truly feel these vibrations: Atlas Sound. For those unfamiliar readers, allow me to give you a brief overview of this project, since it fascinates me to no end. Atlas Sound is the warm, ethereal and shoegaze-y solo moniker for Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox that he’s been using to categorize the music that he creates since his childhood. The first song I heard from Atlas was “Walkabout,” from the 2009 album Logos, since Noah Lennox (Panda Bear to most) from Animal Collective was featured as a vocalist in it. Also being an established fan of the indie legends that Deerhunter are at this point, it took me a while to dive deeper into Cox’s solo efforts, but when I finally did, it was like I unlocked the key to fully understanding this artist and the other work he has put out prior, while also discovering pieces of myself in the process. Let’s talk Logos. The album cover artwork is one that I glanced over at first, thinking it was a typical dream pop “out-of-body” statement to capture the sound of the music. With his face blurred out by a beam of light, Cox stands over, shirtless, and slightly hunched over in front of a red backdrop. Cox was diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome at a young age, an inherited disorder which can drastically affect physical appearance, making one very tall and thin, and comes with a promise of an array of heart, blood vessels and eye problems. Cox has been very vocal throughout his career about how his childhood illnesses contributed to his feelings of isolation and loneliness, and how he spent most of his time trying to express these feelings into music. The cover allows the viewer to embrace his body for what it is, a part of the art. After learning his background, I re-listened to the Atlas song “Quarantined.” Though not on Logos, I find that that song and its lyrical content is the most appropriate source to draw on while focusing on the solo-ness of this project. The opening lines, which are the only lines, themselves pack a punch, thinking of a young Cox: “Quarantined and kept so far away from my friends / I am waiting to be changed.” I can definitely see a lot of people turning to this song to relate to the COVID quarantine, like I first did, but now trying to do so feels like an understatement to Cox’s original ideas while composing it, a solitude that delves past what we felt in those months. The lyrical content of Logos takes these simple stanzas and draws on all the dimensions of these concepts, of feeling an otherworldly isolation from others. Cox’s hushed, echoey yet dragging vocals expresses a longing behind each and every word. Sometimes you can’t understand all that he is saying, but wouldn’t you also say the same thing about what he has gone through? As I’ve read articles and interviews about this artist, I’ve found that he is very much misinterpreted a lot of the time. In early 00s press, many critics commented on his thinness (completely disregarding his condition and making gross, body shaming jokes), crossdressing on stage (mostly in a transphobic, heteronormative manner), outlandish beef with Billy Corgan and basically everything but the stark sadness that was oozing out of the Deerhunter lyrics at the time. I’ve been affected by a lot of his well-executed interviews; he’s talked a lot about his thoughts on sexuality and how its grip on our culture is tightened by capitalism, an idea that I find myself thinking about often now. He has also come out as asexual, which adds dimensions to some of his lyrics, but unfortunately, the press only seems to strangely and judgingly focus on the fact that he’s admitted to be a virgin. Not only is Cox extremely well spoken, he channels these unconventional ideas in his work as well, but only if you listen intentionally. Logos is a whimsical journey, featuring blips, bits and pieces of noises that are like playtime for your brain. “The Light That Failed” acts as a noisy introduction to Cox’s world, a relaxed series of waves that slowly draw you in with each acoustic strum. He blends these guitar melodies with sheets of sound as the album progresses; Cox brings in two dream pop experts, the aforementioned Panda Bear and Stereolab singer Lætitia Sadier, solidifying the album as a shoegaze powerhouse. He talks of lights, traveling, death, religion (my favorite lyric ever, from “Quick Canal,” ‘I thought saints were born saints’), struggles with identity and being alone. It’s the perfect peek into his psyche, one that you catch glimpses of throughout Deerhunter’s discography but won’t fully grasp until you listen to a solo effort. It’s both nostalgic and futuristic, like you’re levitating above the space-time continuum looking at what’s normally on your level at a new angle. I feel at peace when I listen to this album. It reminds me of when the sun reaches the top of my window, about an hour before it sets. Its repetitive jingles are like a blanket for my ears, and I feel warm while listening to it. I don’t want to give too much away about Atlas Sound, because I feel like its discography is an auditory experience that you have to listen and decipher in your own way to define. I hope that my words inspire you to check Bradford Cox’s music out, whether it be under AS or Deerhunter, and read some of his interviews as well. I’ve learned a lot from his words, both spoken and sung, and I believe the rest of the breathing world can, as well.
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