thank you for the music

In the jungle of post-modern rock, it is hard, if not impossible, to explore new territory. I remember talking with Ffonz about the stagnating condition of indie music. A condition which prompted us the search for pastures greener. But then again, once in a while there comes an artist to revive your hope in rock 'n roll, however briefly. Teasing us with the possibility of experiencing a second music revolution, which however you see it will never come again. Deerhunter falls into this category. They sound like the logical continuation of bands like Pavement and Radiohead. But something nags at the back of my head. Something isn't right.
Microcastle, their third lp to date, starts with Cover Me Slowly, which segues into Agoraphobia, both tracks effectively one song, evoking Pavement and Thom Yorke and with it sets the tone for the rest of the album. Despite the lackluster Never Stops which sounds a little bit too much like early Interpol, the band set their course straight again with Little Kids, a dream inducing number from which you'll be slightly disappointed to be waken from. The thought that the album has reached its climax in the course of three songs did cross my mind. Luckily the rest of the album is almost perfection itself. Now, I'm pretty sure the songs weren't created in the order they appear on the album, but it certainly sounds like it. The cohesion of the album is surpassed maybe only by OK Computer or Loveless and this is for me is the biggest strength of post modern rock. This is why Sgt. Pepper is one of the touchstone of popular music. The way that the sum is bigger than its parts. It's hard to imagine the songs standing on it's own, although the likes of Agoraphobia and Nothing Ever Happened certainly could hold out on their own. This simultaneously encapsulates the problem of modern music though. Who would want to experience albums as a whole entity in this age of iPods and music downloads?
And there it was. The dawning realization that rock truly is dead. In its golden age rock music truly encapsulates the zeitgeist of the time. It was both revolutionary and commercial. It was food for the soul and opium for the masses at the same time. Deerhunter may have released a beautiful album, but it is also their destiny to be keepsakes for only a select group of people, and for it is also for these group of people they've ultimately created this album. Rock is dead. Long live rock 'n roll.