Deerhunter Albums Ranked

Deerhunter is an American rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2001. The band currently consists of Bradford Cox (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Moses Archuleta (drums, electronics, sound treatments), Lockett Pundt (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Josh McKay (bass), and Javier Morales (keyboards, synthesizers, alto saxophone). Founded by Cox and Archuleta, Deerhunter’s first stable line-up included guitarist Colin Mee and bass guitarist Justin Bosworth. After recording a split EP with Alphabets, Bosworth died on March 29, 2004, of head injuries suffered during a skateboarding accident. He was 23 years old. The band recorded their first studio album, Turn It Up Faggot (2005), with Josh Fauver occupying the vacant role of a bass guitarist. Following the album’s release, Cox asked childhood friend, Lockett Pundt, to join Deerhunter as a song-writing partner, second guitarist, and occasional lead vocalist. Deerhunter has described itself as “ambient punk,” though they incorporate a wide range of genres, including noise, garage rock, art rock, as well as significant pop elements. Here are all of Deerhunter albums ranked.

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10. Rainwater Cassette Exchange (2009)

“A lovely mix of Deerhunter’s rock and ambient sides is present in this release. This is one example I hold of an near perfect E.P. The low point is Game of Diamonds, but I only consider it a low point because of how awesome the other four tracks are. The title track is probably one of Deerhunter’s best ever tracks. Don’t hesitate to pick up this E.P. if you get the chance.”

9. Turn It Up Faggot (2005)

“This kicks butt. It’s loud, angry and despite being so short, some of the songs just get into this super psychedelic groove that I’m really into. It’s kind of hard to get through in one sitting, but it’s mostly great.”

8. Microcastle / Weird Era Cont. (2008)

“Microcastle is one of, if not my favorite album of all time. It is the most dark and depressing album I have ever heard, and ironically the album that I connected to the most. I think part of the reason I felt such a strong connection to this album is because when I heard this I was pretty depressed, and I felt like I was living a pretty damn shitty life too.”

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7. Weird Era Cont. (2008)

“A great experimental sister album to Microcastle. Offers some great tunes as well as some very trippy moments- pure Deerhunter madness! best tracks: Backspace century, dot gain, vox humana, slow swords”

6. Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? (2019)

“This is a lovely little album of well-executed psychedelia and indie pop, and quite a distance in tone from the hazy neo-psych of Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter’s strongest work, and farther still from the noisy thickness of Cryptograms. Harpsichords, synthesizers, and pianos dominate the mix this time around. The atmosphere they create is quite comforting and unique. There is a general level of musicality to this band, so that everything they produce is of a certain quality. At the very least they are always pleasant to listen to.”

5. Fading Frontier (2015)

“Lyrically and musically, Fading Frontier is a more relaxed and introspective album than Monomania (which plays enormously well into the Bradford Cox narrative) but some integral essence seems to have been lost in the process of pursuing swirling chords and bittersweet one-liners. (Breaker, Snakeskin)”

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4. Cryptograms (2007)

“This is the Deerhunter I prefer; noisy, chaotic, dark, warm, thick, lush. Every listen is rewarding and I always lose myself in the repeating rhythms of it. Octet is a pulsating, noisy soundscape that I come back to time and time again. The ambient parts of this album don’t feel armature or boring.”

3. Monomania (2013)

“Returning to weird era cont. sonority of course, this is very noise and rude next to the sweet and dreamy atmosphere of halcyon digest, I’m pretty sure this is very dark too, a good album which does not deserve this stupid negative welcome, c’mon just because it’s not “helicopter” feel doesn’t mean it’s bad also Monomania last seconds sounds like a chainsaw (!) this is Bradford cutting your brain out.”

2. Microcastle (2008)

“I want to love this album unconditionally…it’s so fantastic in so many ways, it reaches probably farther than the band ever reached. Unfortunately, it sometimes languishes in the noisy abyss found by many shoegaze-alt bands of this sort. Amply corrected on the follow-up “Halcyon Digest”, yet this is still a fantastic album, should be much more highly considered.”

1. Halcyon Digest (2010)

“Hazy, beautiful, dark, dreamy, psychedelic, folkie, poppy, sweet and a little bit evil. This is the band’s most straight-forward release so far, but it still swims in an ethereal sea that seems to, at times, summon the ghost of John Lennon. “Helicopter” is the anchor in the middle of the album and one of the best songs of the year. The surrounding tracks do nothing to diminish the aching splendor of its trance; another album of this quality could see Deerhunter becoming unquestioned Indie royalty.”