Review Summary: Dan Deacon turns inward, creates his most traditional "pop" album yet
Dan Deacon is overcoming his stress addiction. You can hear it, too. Just buy this album. Representative of the "calm" manner in which it was created (no live instruments, guest players- just Deacon in the studio), this is his most chilled out album yet. However, it certainly still retains his pop influences. He's always been a pop musician, despite his musical density. And this album is no different, it's a noisy burst of electronic pop. I've referred to him in the past as "Hyperpop", and that's certainly still true with Gliss Riffer. This is INCREDIBLY catchy music, at its best. I'm not quite sure there's a bad song on the album. But, in the process of creating a stress free album (and towards the end, coming closer to ambient than he has since his early material), he's also created his least interesting album. Now, it's still fascinating. And still great, certainly. But compared to the scope of Bromst or America, it's just... an electronic album. It's tame, it's simple, he's dumb, he's the pilot, what have you. Ok, it's certainly not dumb (nor is he) but i can't stop myself when a good reference arises. This is a solid 40 minutes of really good music. It's just less interesting than Deacon's usual fare.
