Deerhunter "Monomania" [2013]

How many effects are too many? Listen to Deerhunter's "Monomania" and find out conclusively. These guys sound like The Vines working at a haunted house (hmm -- might actually be what those guys are doing nowadays). Things here are so drenched in studio noise, even the singer from The Strokes is like "Check out the douchebag with the affected vocals." But these comments are probably still overselling what's going on here: perhaps all Deerhunter really is (Jesus, what's with that name, BTW? thought I was about to listen to a Ted Nugent tribute band) is a strummy little group of miscreants playing everything through the same broken amp speaker and recorded at the bottom of a canyon. It's possible the intention here was to -- especially via music biz groupthink (so you know what's coming next is a bad idea) -- combine the aggressive retardedness of The White Stripes with the suck-ass reverb and jangle overkill of MGMT. What ultimately sinks "Monomania," however, is right there in the album title: for all the plunky echo and noisy fuzz, the tracks soon start sounding the same. After all, there are only so many funky microbrews you can be willing to swallow before switching to something more palatable, especially if you thought the first one tasted like swill in the first place.