Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel

Much has been made of Deerhunter frontman/Atlas Sound mastermind Bradford Cox's struggles with Marfan Syndrome--perhaps because it's easy to imagine such a chronic condition encouraging the kind of psychedelic bedroom-pop experiments that predominate on LET THE BLIND LEAD. There's a subtle menace to the record that vaguely recalls latter-day Radiohead, and suggests that Cox may be sifting through some struggles of his own, yet that trouble never overtakes the disarming beauty that bursts through these noisy cuts. Cox's vocals are generally overdubbed into incomprehensible, mantra-muttering oblivion, melting into his music and adding an equally beguiling organic layer to the artificially constructed sonic mania that is Atlas Sound. LET THE BLIND LEAD, if nothing else, makes a case for less time spent on the road and more locked in one's room with solitary side projects.