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Album Reviews
Album Review: The Deer Tracks – The Archer Trilogy Part 2 (The Control Group)
By Marc Samuels | Published on Monday 4 July 2011
This second album from the longtime CMU favourites is, if not quite a summer album, certainly slightly less glacial and wintry than their debut, ‘Aurora’, if only due to the splashes of colour that suggest the Swedish duo’s sonic influences on this album also extended to early 90s trance and techno.
Thankfully it hasn’t lost the things that made ‘Aurora’ so compelling – the Múm playfulness, Sigur Rós-style ethereal melancholy and glitchy ‘Vespertine’-era Björk beats, all held together by the endearingly elfin boy-girl vocals of David Lehnberg and Elin Lindfors.
And whilst ‘Meant To Be’ has some jarring almost grungy guitars amid its crystalline beauty, it simply reflect a growing confidence and desire to break new ground.
And so, the majestic ‘Dark Passenger’ is a slow-building epic that unfurls in a similar, albeit more controlled, vein to their ‘Yes, This Is My Broken Shield’, whilst the anthemic chorus of ‘Fa Fire’ could almost make the track an electro Smashing Pumpkins (though infinitely better if only for the absence of Billy Corgan).
Elsewhere we get The Deer Tracks’ take on slightly euphoric dance pop, redolent of a less scary The Knife, whilst ‘Fall With Me’ is impossibly lovely, with a plaintive melodica refrain that radiates a beautiful sadness you just can’t help but drown in.
An album of contrasts, at its best, ‘The Archer Trilogy’ is captivating listening. You’d be hard pressed to hear better music released by anyone else this year, frankly. MS
Physical release: 22 Aug
