Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox has spoken in recent interviews about feeling “outside of society” since a serious car crash last year. Any effect that’s had on his band isn’t immediately obvious: opener All the Same reprises the “dark garage” sounds of 2013’s Monomania. But delve deeper and Fading Frontier reveals itself to be more complex, and more unpredictable. Living My Life and the seductive Duplex Planet hark back to the dream-like delicacy of Halcyon Digest, but Leather and Wood is an amorphous mess. Thankfully, the best songs are saved until last: Ad Astra, guitarist Lockett Pundt’s sole writing credit, contrasts glacial synths and tempo with a warm, blissed-out vocal. It’s followed by Carrion, an impassioned ballad that is Cox at his most engaging.
