Atlas Sound: Parallax

Since its earliest releases, Atlanta’s Deerhunter has been subject to incredible scrutiny, critical and otherwise; at one point, guitarist Colin Mee quit partially over “receiving (and creating) too much press.” But the noise-rock experimenters have been equally fenced in by their increasing popularity, with frontman Bradford Cox spending interviews bemoaning the creative limitations of success. No wonder, then, that Cox side-project Atlas Sound, with its bedroom genesis and intimate intent, has always felt like his refuge. Parallax, Cox’s third Atlas full-length, is as attentively produced as 2009’s superbly spacey Logos, but the songs shed some of his usual studio trickery in favor of broad melodies and open chords. Throughout, Cox’s guitars shake off country-western dust and his vocals hide behind Sun Records slapback: given Cox’s post-punk roots, it makes for an oddly American-sounding record, like Elvis jamming on Richard Branson’s next Space X flight.