As I have mentioned before, Cryptograms is my favorite Deerhunter record. Its more ambient passages are absolutely transcendent in a way that so many shoegaze/dreampop bands fail to emulate better.

But, as I have mourned, as Bradford Cox & Co. continue making music, they slip further and further away from the glistening haze they crafted so masterfully and more towards direct pop rock.

2010’s Halcyon Digest was a psych-pop loveletter to motown and the Beatles that dealt mostly in (relatively) straightforward pop gently processed by vintage reverb units and tape delays. Their newest release, Monomania, continues their journey out of the fog. And as much as I’d like another Cryptograms, Deerhunter makes it really difficult to be disappointed by what they’re doing now.

Without exaggeration, this is Deerhunter’s most aggressive release. Instead of his gentle croon, Cox often wails full-voiced. There are more distorted guitars here than any of their other records combined (not counting the self-titled debut that the band has practically disowned)–the title track begins and ends with a squalor of feedback.

It’s not surprising, however, given the album’s label “File under Nocturnal Garage” and Bradford Cox’s recent interviews about what punk really is (and a song titled “Punk (La Vie Anterieure),” which isn’t very punk, actually).

Let’s not be one-sided though–there are a few softer songs mixed in, like Pundt’s “The Missing” (his only song here), the gentle pop sway of “Sleepwalking,” and the acoustic “Nitebike.” But it is a little surprising that even with Pundt’s touring guitarist in Deerhunter now, the group sounds the least like Lotus Plaza than they ever have. On the other hand, Parallax, Cox’s most recent record as Atlas Sound, sounds a bit like a prequel to Monomania, forming the closest solo project/full band relationship of anything in the Deerhunter, etc. canon.

But when the music is this good, who cares if one of the two frontmen is doing all the fronting? And who cares if they’re bellowing “Bohemian Rhapsody” quotes over distorted guitars instead of whispering over fully-cranked reverb pedals? So what if they’re chunking big chords instead of losing themselves in hypnotic jam sections? And who cares what punk is or is not? Just put the record on the table and hit play.