The group began with the ambition of fusing the lulling hypnotic states induced by ambient and minimalist music with the klang and propulsion of garage rock. The band has weathered chaotic line-up changes and the death of a member.
Cryptograms was the second full-length offering from Deerhunter, and their first for Kranky. The album took almost two years to finish and was the product of emotional, physical, and financial strain on the group. The result is an album that finds the band shifting from discordant catharsis, and forming a sonic identity that completely expresses the place from which they have arrived. The first half of the album was recorded first unsuccessfully in 2005. These recordings were a blur at best, wordless and bordering on psychological atrophy. The sessions failed to provide anything tangible, and were racked with technical and personal problems, including out-of-tune pianos, panic attacks, and a tape machine that seemed to fail to capture the full spectrum of ambience the band was exploring.
The band returned home, having failed, and considered giving up. The idea arose to give it one last shot and exactly one year from the date of the recording of their first self-titled LP at a small studio in rural Georgia, they returned to that same studio and plugged in. The session resulted in the first half of the record which was recorded in one day and completely filled the reel of tape they brought with them. Cryptograms’ first side begins with an introduction leading to the title track, and ends with the tape literally spinning off the end of the reel in the middle of a drone layered with bells and accordion (Red Ink). The second half of the record, also recorded in one day, in November of 2005, represents the band in an entirely different state. Spring Hall Convert opens with the line, “…so I woke up…” and introduces a set of focused psych-pop songs fixating on adolescence, illness, and failing connections.
On May 8, 2007, the group released the Fluorescent Grey EP, which was recorded in July 2006. This EP also garnered the title of "Best New Music" from Pitchfork Media. In the same month, the band released the Whirlyball 7" single, which was available at only one store in Atlanta, Georgia: Criminal Records. The single also acted as a ticket to a show, which featured the band along with The Carbonas, Selmanaires and The Coathangers. The single was available online for a limited time after the show due to popular demand, but only 200 copies were pressed, with 100 on black vinyl and 100 on clear vinyl.
The quartet's third album, Microcastle, came out in October of 2008 after being leaked accidentally in May. The physical release was accompanied by an album entitled Weird Era Cont.. They were both well-received, scoring a 9.2 and "best new music" on Pitchfork and taking the #1 slot for Tiny Mix Tapes' annual favorite albums list for 2008.
The band added guitarist Whitney Petty, a former sailor and high school friend of Cox's, to replace the departing Colin Mee in May 2008. She in turn left the band in February 2009.
The band followed up the critically acclaimed Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. set in May 2009 with an EP - Rainwater Cassette Exchange.
In September 2010, Deerhunter released Halcyon Digest on the label 4AD. The album received broad critical acclaim, including being rated #20 on the NME "50 Best Albums of 2010." Deerhunter made their US broadcast television debut on Conan, December 2, 2010, where they performed Helicopter.
Deerhunter released their sixth album, Monomania, in May 2013. It was their first album without bassist Josh Fauver, with Frankie Broyles and Josh McKay being added to the group. The Black Lips described the album as the "most punk album of the last 30 years."
On December 4, 2014, frontman Bradford Cox was seriously injured and hospitalized after being hit by a car in Atlanta. He has since described the incident as a “perspective-giving jolt” and cites the accident as a turning point for him in life. Deerhunter's seventh album, Fading Frontier, was released in October 2015. This was Cox's first musical output since the accident. The album also saw the departure of guitarist Frankie Broyles, who left the band to focus on his solo career.
In 2018, multi-instrumentalist Javier Morales was added as a permanent member, and the band embarked on a series of tour dates in the USA and Europe. Sold on this tour was a limited cassette-only release, Double Dream of Spring, comprised mainly of instrumental and experimental pieces. The band's eighth studio album, Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?, followed in January 2019. Later in the year, a "12-minute opus" titled Timebends was released to streaming services as a one-off single. Partially improvised and laden with Cox's signature stream-of-consciousness lyricism, the track was "recorded live direct to tape and in one take with minimal overdubs and mastered using a completely analogue signal chain."
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Cryptograms
Deerhunter Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The days were long, the weeks flew by
Before I knew I was awake
My days were through, it was too late
My greatest fear I organized
Into something more realized
And now what's left I get to spend
My greatest fear I can't decode
A cryptogram whose seeds weren't sewn
My last few months I arised out
My vision blurred, there was no sound
There was no sound, there was no sound
The lyrics in Cryptograms by Deerhunter are reflective of the intrinsic fears and anxieties that one might have at the end of their life. The singer of the song is contemplating their past and how they've spent their time. The opening lines, "my greatest fear I fantasized, the days were long, the weeks flew by," conveys how moments can feel both fleeting and everlasting. The singer then reflects on their attempts to organize their fears, "my greatest fear I organized into something more realized," but ultimately finds that the very nature of mortality is incomprehensible, "my greatest fear I can't decode, a cryptogram whose seeds weren't sewn." The final lines of the song, "my last few months I arised out, my vision blurred, there was no sound," are a haunting portrayal of the end of life, with the singer's senses failing and consciousness slipping away.
Line by Line Meaning
My greatest fear I fantasized
I often imagined my worst fears coming to life
The days were long, the weeks flew by
Time seemed to move slowly, yet quickly at the same time
Before I knew I was awake
I didn't realize the gravity of the situation until it was too late
My days were through, it was too late
I had run out of time and my fate was sealed
My greatest fear I organized
I took my fears and structured them into something more tangible
Into something more realized
My fears became clearer and more apparent
And now what's left I get to spend
I have limited time left to live and must make the most of it
Knowing that it's about to end
I am aware that my life is rapidly coming to a close
My greatest fear I can't decode
There is an aspect of my fear that I cannot understand or decipher
A cryptogram whose seeds weren't sewn
My fear is like a puzzle with missing pieces that were never there to begin with
My last few months I arised out
I emerged from the final stretch of my life
My vision blurred, there was no sound
As I approach death, my senses begin to fade and my perception becomes distorted
There was no sound, there was no sound
The absence of sound reflects the emptiness and silence of death
Contributed by Samuel N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Zachary S
Cryptograms:
1- Intro 0:00
2- Cryptograms 2:50
3- White Ink 7:07
4- Lake Somerset 12:06
5- Providence 15:55
6- Octet 20:03
7- Red Ink 27:53
8- Spring Hall Convert 31:33
9- Strange Lights 36:02
10- Hazel Street 39:40
11- Tape Hiss Orchid 43:28
12- Heatherwood 44:40
Scott Jensen
I came back to this album recently and was hit with a brick wall of "this is a cathartic masterpiece of epic proportions"
RIP Josh Fauver
Rob Crellen
Still my favourite DeerHunter album, the beginning is just explosive.
Kristian Stanley
i love coming back to an old album a long time after having been into it. like re-reading an old book, you discover things there that you never even paid attention to the first time. it helps that this album is so masterfully made, that there's so much to take in in the first place. it's why they aren't "popular"(saw a lot of comments about that): they're just too much for music listeners at large; too challenging.
Damian B
It's not old.
yung stephen
Damian B if this album were a person itd be in 7th grade
John Tramel
one of the greatest psych rock albums ever.
john f
yeah it's alright I suppose. but it's no Kidz Bop 27
ZeeDDD65
I think it's one of the best shoegaze albums tbh
Fire🔥
Deerhunter are incredible, my favourite band of all time.
Chris Farmer
The bass part on this is so, so good