Bradford Cox is back in Atlas Sound mode – his intimate vocal, the whispered dreams and the effortless stream of hazy pop. And once again it doesn’t disappoint, in fact it’s got some of his finest Atlas material to date.

There’s a lighter touch here, acoustics a prominent piece of the puzzle, pop-friendly rhythms roll and run with little weight on their shoulders. It is immediately apparent with the excellent opener, The Shakes, that Cox is less concerned with creating a clear divide between Deerhunter and Atlas Sound in terms of electronics and live instruments. The continual momentum is often created with picked and strummed guitars – though the synths and warped effects never stray far from home.

Amplifiers is a soft, sauntering comedown with a singular line chorus that is as affecting as anything on the 12 track set. The title track has fluctuating electronics trickling down upon the reverberating guitar and Cox’s up-close delivery. Tunes like My Angel is Broken somehow walk a line (that Cox has invented) between classic, old school rock ’n’ roll (with the rumbling guitar riff and percussive rhythm) and an ethereal day-dream. It results in a sense of hopelessness amidst straight-up arrangements – the title’s words repeated throughout the yearning, yet intently sung chorus.

The album, according to Cox, was inspired by “sci-fi fever dreams and mid century rock”, and that does seem to be the perfect description. Structured songs are manipulated, sent to space, left in solitary and soaked with reverb, clear vision and suffocating emotion.

There is something in the musician’s writing, in his subtle melodies and the laid-back conveyance that you just can’t quite grasp or pin-point – it results in inimitable records that we just can’t get enough of.

-William Bell-