The Wake

The aptly titled Bromst, Dan Deacon’s newest album seems to bring together exactly what the title implies. Part new sound, part old, Dan Deacon took Bromst in a somewhat new direction, while largely adhering to his old standbys of crazy and absurd. The songs are as packed with noise as ever, while Deacon distorts his voice through out the background like some sort of acid-tripping, cat-stuck-in-engine sound that I couldn’t possibly describe any better.

Of the newer twist to his sound, Deacon makes ample use of digital synth drums and computerized sounds. Every track is filled to bursting with noise and sound, but Deacon, showing an incomparable ability to make sense out of the absurd, winds it all into coherent and catchy songs. In fact, this album has even more structure than Deacon’s last one, but still manages to contain all of the size his previous work carried.

For some reason though, the album just doesn’t touch me like his last one. There isn’t the freshness or surprise. Deacon makes his music in a sort of vacuum, really pioneering an individual noise. Part of the excitement that lies in Dan Deacon has to do with discovery, that freshness that exists in that new sound. But like asparagus, that freshness turns into something that smells kind of fishy after a while, and makes you think really hard about whether or not you want to digest it. That’s is kind of what Bromst is like after a couple of listens, it just comes out stale.

The album does have some very redeeming tracks, and it does have a lot of new sounds that were undoubtedly pounded out on some sort of digital electronica anvil. As a final statement, if you haven’t heard Deacon before, this would be a great album to start with. If you’re a standing fan however, it may not live up to expectation.