Deafheaven “Lonely People With Power”

If you’ve been listening to Deafheaven for the last ten plus years you’ll know the variance from album to album which explains their notoriety. Key standouts include “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” that’s lush in texture, and their most recent prior release “Infinite Granite” where George Clarke went full Morrissey. Their newest album seems like a “Sunbather II” of sorts, returning to the form we’re familiar with, additionally combining elements from their prior records that made each album so different. Blasts, screeching vocals, the clean passages from OCHL, and the vocal elements from IG that pushed so many critics away, now somehow work all together in twelve songs that clock in a tad over an hour to remind us that Deafheaven are still capable of doing “the thing.” The album continues the conversation for the band, but in my own opinion doesn’t give them any additional edge they didn’t already have with their superb catalogue that predated the release.