deerhunter

Deerhunter is bubbling restraint.

Their music bristles and reverberates, threatening in equal parts to either explode into tsunami static or fade out completely. Microcastle, their third release, is defined by this schizophrenic, varied impulse, an outlook embodied in frontman Bradford Cox.

Cox, the group's creative engine, seems to straddle the line between musical catharsis and introspection, both bleeding out his problems and keeping them internal. "Agoraphobia" is the first of many exemplary songs. The piece is marked by the story it tells, with fitting lyrics that match up well with the title's fear. The vocals are delivered by a confident and capable Lockett Pundt, primarily the band's guitarist, who sings, "I had a dream/No longer to be free/I want only to see/Four walls made of concrete,"

Pundt does well, but it's Cox's voice that proves riveting. He brings a depth and variety to the record, sometimes singing softly in a higher register (as on "Microcastle") and others using a lower, authoritative voice. The best example of the latter is rocker "Nothing Ever Happened," which opens with a dynamite bassline and rapid-fire drumming. The rhythm section continues to anchor the song, and Cox vocalizes over feedback-spewing guitars. The feedback is one side of Deerhunter's guitar playing, which also frequently involves shimmering scales and cutting punk chords.

Further stylistic changes come in "Saved By Old Times," which is anchored by a bluesy acoustic guitar hook, and "Calvary Scars," a superb vignette of Cox's somber state of mind. Cox has come out from the tentativeness that showed on his earlier work to fully embrace his extensive musical range, and the band has skillfully followed.