Cryptograms has less of the post-punk vigor and more of the avant calm that pervaded the group’s earlier attempts at dismantling the revivalist paradigm. The record’s title track is perhaps the most in-tune with Faggot’s art-fucked dance-slabs like “Death Drag,” but now the band has finally utilized their live show’s sense of tape- and effects-laden euphoria with the manic energy only a spirited group of pre-cynicism youngsters could execute.  Full text...

While Cryptograms presents its own obstacles, it's easily enjoyed as a whole. Memorable melodies and an awkward, charismatic narrator are often peeking from behind the dissonance-laden mists that self-consciously choke them.  Full text...

The sweet and muddled songs.  Full text...

On Cryptograms, Deerhunter, a quintet from Atlanta, creates a pervasive sense of inevitable doom across this fascinating and fractured effort. Does album foresee the end of the world? Perhaps, with nearly half of the album filled with ominous sounds and premonitions of our future.   Full text...

Cryptograms is by no means a flawless record, but taking the time to speak its language, tap into the dueling forces that make it tick, is an intriguing reward.   Full text...

Half of me thinks the group was aiming for a bit of something hypnotized and dreamy, that they worship Spacemen 3 and the patience that entails. But then the other half thinks Cryptograms is something gritty and furious, maybe something religious, but still something of a turtlehead waiting to poke through.   Full text...