Album Review: Dan Deacon - America

Artist: Dan DeaconAlbum: AmericaRelease Date: August 28, 2012Label: DominoTo explain Dan Deacon’s music to a friend, I once compared it to experiencing a ceiling fan giving birth: immediately eye-opening and often more eye-opening the longer you watch it, whimsical, a bit shocking, and very beautiful.2007's Spiderman of the Rings, Deacon’s debut, is punctuated by ecstatically playful bleeps and bloops and lyrics like “I got a rattlesnake gun, I got a rattlesnake gun, I got a rattlesnake gun!” In 2009, Bromst took a more serious tone, consisting of carefully placed phrases of distorted vocals, drones, and xylophones, delivered with an air of bombastic triumph.I saw Dan Deacon perform shortly after the release of Bromst, and the show had all of the frenetic sweaty shuffling that I was promised, but also something new. In contrast to past performances, when Deacon would set up by himself on the floor with the crowd around him, he performed on a stage with an ensemble of fourteen live musicians. It was as if Deacon were responding to those who wrote him off as a bleep-bloop novelty, the message being something like “Don’t call me producer; I’m a composer.” And sure, I’ll give him that. Deacon’s oft-cited formal composition training comes across clearly in his music, and it is most obvious in America.If Bromst were, say, the conquering of a nation full of viviparous ceiling fan creatures, then America is the settling of it. In this album, Deacon takes what he’s learned with his expanding arsenal of tools, toys, and talent, and creates something that is notably subtler, more careful, and also more complex.Opening track “Guilford Avenue Bridge” treats us to a warbling drone and pounding drums, then moves into the fun, blog-friendly “True Thrush,” a song which combines perfectly what Deacon has done on his prior two albums. With its crisp, tight composition and vague, yet deep emotional poignancy, it is among the best songs Deacon has released. A few filler songs later (“Prettyboy” is pretty but forgettable, “Crash Jam” sounds like a cut from Spiderman of the Rings), and we come to the main event. In “USA,” his final piece, split into four parts, Deacon pulls out all the stops: violins, marimbas, horns, etc. It’s a twenty-minute classically-charged composition with movements in a rough A-B-A form. With this song, I get the impression that Deacon is finally able to create the music he’s always wanted to.Deacon has been distancing himself from his goofy roots as part of Baltimore’s Wham City collective, but as a result, he has also distanced himself, both literally and figuratively, from the audience. The problem, which is partially based in the reputation he made for himself with sugar-rush jams like Spiderman’s “The Crystal Cat,” is that he doesn’t explain why we should be patient with him in more expansive endeavors like “USA.” Standing on its own, “USA” is truly impressive and beautiful, but we live in a whole world of beautiful things, from Lake Placid (seen saturated on the album cover), to the miracle of ceiling fan birth. What makes an album beautiful, however, is its music all working together to create a definable whole. Unfortunately, America just isn’t set up to have a song like “USA.” In his attempt to craft something more serious, Deacon has actually made his least cohesive release yet.Rating (by pizza size):10″ (small pie)12″ (medium pie)14″ (large pie)16″ (X-large pie)18″ (Really big pizza)