Deerhunter, Breaker.

If it seems somewhat counterintuitive to learn that Messrs Cox and Pundt have never previously interwoven their respective vocal cords for the benefit of song-based form, then it seems all the more so once you’ve wrapped your ears around the irrefutably fucking resplendent Breaker, taken from Deerhunter’s forthcoming seventh full-length effort, Fading Frontier. For the former’s deadpan, forever pragmatic delivery (perhaps rather predictably) proves the perfect accompaniment to Lockett Pundt’s reflective, coruscating harmonies and analgesic melodies, the latter channeling his inner Roger McGuinn atop a high-flying chorus that’s eminently redolent of The Byrds at their very best. And if Cox should later lament, “I’ve got the time, and it’s been too long/ Since I’ve been drivin’ all night, on the back roads winding/ Under the stars, that are slowly dying/ Oh no”, then thank Heavens they’re heading back out on tour in the coming months; not least in light of the dramatic car accident which left him hospitalised late on last year. Oh, yes!

Fading Frontier will be available from October 16th via 4AD, while Deerhunter play London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on November 7th.