Album Review // 2021-03-12

Deafheaven

Sunbather

Released: 2013-06-11

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I heard "Come Back" from Deafheaven's album New Bermuda. It didn't make it to my playlist, but the lyrics and artwork really stood out to me. They kept coming back to my mind, so I wanted to check more out from them.

Deafheaven - two words contrasted against each other. One associated with the loss of a sense, the other associated with pleasantness. But apparently I am thinking more deeply about the name than the band did. They claim they simply stuck two words together. 

The title of this album, Sunbather, is kind of unexpected. I am actually sitting in a happy light as I type. This light gives me some needed rays during the winter months. In reality, we need sunlight. So a sunbather makes me think of someone that is reaching out for more. Maybe they are comforted by the warmth; maybe they are unsettled without it. I also think of people laying out on the beach on a towel. I did a bit of this as a kid, but overall I wasn't one of those people that spent all say in the sun. Either way, sunbathing is assocated with being warm and comfortable, or at least craving it.

Apparently this band began with two guys, and later developed into a 5-piece band. This album added the drummer to the duo.

Artwork

Very simple. Just two colours, with the word Sunbather. If I didn't know the title of this album, I might have thought this said Sun Bat Her, which is confusing. Just looking at this cover, I would skip over this album. I wouldn't think that this would be anything I am interested in based on this. Maybe the softness would feel welcoming to some, but not to me. Maybe it is meant kinda like a lure, come to this upbeat and happy thing. But it actually isn't that way.

Mood

Some of the ways things are looped and faded make me think of a dream, but to me, this isn't a good dream. It is one I want to wake myself up from. And I don't mean that as a joke, I mean I think it is supposed to sound like a bad dream, at times. Maybe like someone is coming in and out of one. He has a burst of energy, and then finds himself back in that place again. 

Some songs sound sad, some sound stuck. This feels like it is full of regret!

Vocals

I tried to find something in these vocals that I could like. But honestly, they feel like the worst part of the music to me. Not my thing. They just have one sound to them, and it is grating to me. 

Music

Sometimes this music just reminds me of a coherant song that is being listened to with the windows down in the car. You know that wierd sound experience you get with the fast-paced vibrations? I do not like that sensation at all. The more melodic parts that appear in the background, or when the music quiets and the drums change pace is okay, but it isn't enough. This music seems to contain a lot of higher-pitched sounds. I guess my favourite parts were the lower melodic parts. I also enjoyed the use of the keyboard. Some of the songs seem uneccesarily long, but I guess I think that because I am not clicking with them. I swear, I listened to this several times. Some of the times I had to stop and try again another day. Sometimes, I made it through the album. It actually bothered me, physically - it made me feel ill.

Dream House

Not sure what is going on here. I get the sense that the place this person is, is not actually their dream. Or maybe he/she thought it was what they wanted, but is realizing, not so much.

Hindered by sober restlessness.
Submitting to the amber crutch.
The theme in my aching prose.
Fantasizing the sight of Manhattan;
that pour of a bitter red being that escapes a thin frame.
The rebirth of mutual love.
The slipping on gloves to lay tenderly.

"I'm dying."
- "Is it blissful?"
"It's like a dream."
- "I want to dream."

Irresistable

Instrumental

Sunbather

Obviously, this has to be meaningful, as it is the name of the album. To me, it feels like maybe there is a wish that he/she was in a better place. Or possibly this sunbather he is watching was someone he was once with but is no longer.

I held my breath and drove through a maze of wealthy homes.
I watched how green the trees were.
I watched the steep walkways and the white fences.

I gripped the wheel.

I sweated against the leather.
I watched the dogs twist through the wealthy garden.

I watched you lay on a towel in grass that exceeded the height of your legs.

I gazed into reflective eyes.
I cried against an ocean of light.

Please Remember

I am not sure what we have to remember. That isn't clear. 

This seems to be about being in a relationship just to be in a relationship. Obviously, this woman isn't interested in being in a monogamous relationship. She isn't hiding it, but yet this guy is driven to be with her even though it seems like he wished for more.

This first part seems like a clip. I looked up the clip and it is a quote from Milan Kundera. This isn't someone I am familar with.

Even then, her words had left Tomas in a strange state of melancholy, and now he realized it was only a matter of chance that Tereza loved him and not his friend Z. Apart from her consummated love for Tomas, there were, in the realm of possibility, an infinite number of
unconsummated loves for other men.

These phrases seem like someone who isn't buying the whole love idea. I can't blame him. We really are selfish people so love isn't easy to come by.

We all reject out of hand the idea that the love of our life may be something light or weightless; we presume our love is what must be, that without it our life would no longer be the same; we feel Beethoven himself, gloomy and awe-inspiring, is playing to our own great
love.

Vertigo

This almost seems like you are feeling ill from how quick life is going, or the ways it is changing you.

Memories fly through the mask of your life
shielding you from time
The years that birthed the shell that you gained
Hunched over in apathetic grief
with a disregard for steps except the one taken back

I really like the words used here to describe being weighted down by grief.

WIndows

Instrumental

The Pecan Tree

I can feel the pain in this one! It is obviously about someone whose parent never had it together, never valued the person the way a parent should value their child.

Makes me think of people I know personally who have very hard-to-respect parents, who unfortunately define themselves based on their DNA. I personally think we can rise past the DNA. We can do better than our parents!

I laid drunk on the concrete on the day of your birth in celebration of all you were worth.

I am my father’s son.
I am no one.
I cannot love.
It’s in my blood.

Playlist Pick

While I can appreciate the pain and emotion put into this, I don't want hear it again!