Fading Frontier
A bright, clear-eyed turn toward pop warmth and spacious synthesizers. Written in the wake of trauma, it trades their signature murky noise for serene clarity.
A bright, clear-eyed turn toward pop warmth and spacious synthesizers. Written in the wake of trauma, it trades their signature murky noise for serene clarity.
Quiet consolidation
Bright acoustic guitars and clean, humming synthesizers replace the old basement static. Written after a near-fatal car crash, these songs breathe with a quiet, sunlit relief. You can feel the cool morning air in the open spaces between the notes, where jagged noise finally softens into calm, glowing pop.
The songwriting leans deeply into a bittersweet mood, capturing the profound relief of survival alongside the fragile, lingering shadows of a near-fatal accident.
Critics warmly received the album as a direct and emotionally mature effort, praising its gentle, dreamlike textures and straightforward songwriting. Reviewers broadly agreed that the music reflects a band at peace with their evolution, capturing a refined, adult perspective that feels both intimate and confident.
“The best is saved until last”Read review
“By no means a poor album, and truth be told really doesn’t possess a bad number on it; the real issue is that in a genre filled with imitators we need a bit more bang for our buck”Read review
“It’s a portrait of the young men as adult artists; it’s the closest equivalent to a major-label debut for an era when a band might as well stay independen”Read review
“Coming after the progressive and corrosive Monomania, Fading Frontier feels like a slight step back”Read review
“Atlanta’s best psychedelic crew makes a wide-ranging, elliptically pretty LP”Read review
“Deerhunter’s most content, warm and plainspoken work to date”Read review
“Make no mistake, Fading Frontier marks the end of a chapter for Deerhunter. I don’t think we could ever hear the outsider art of Weird Era again”Read review
“The most direct, unflinching album Deerhunter have ever made”Read review
“Fading Frontier is probably Deerhunter’s fourth best album. It’s still an excellent record, but it’s just ever so slightly underwhelming”Read review
“There’s a confidently dreamy quality running through most of the songs on Fading Frontier that gives off the impression of a group at peace with both itself and its place in the musical world”Read review
“On Fading Frontier, Deerhunter focus on their ability as a band to hypnotize and confound, which make the explosive moments here stand out that much more”Read review
“Musically and emotionally, this is one of Deerhunter’s most powerful - and delicate - albums”Read review
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