Hear the album’s first single now.
In March, Atlanta’s Deerhunter alluded to the forthcoming release of a follow-up to their acclaimed 2015 album Fading Frontier. However in the ensuing months since, Bradford Cox and co. have deviated from revealing further details of their eighth LP to release an experimental tour-only cassette tape and debut previously unheard material during performances with a new live configuration, until now.
Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? will release on January 18th courtesy of long-time label 4AD and was recorded between Los Angeles, Texas and Atlanta, featuring contributions from Welsh musician Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley of White Fence. A coinciding press release describes the album as “a science fiction album about the present” that explores its titular question by “reinventing their approach to microphones, the drum kit, the harpsichord, the electromechanical and synthetic sounds of keyboards.” The statement adds that “whatever guitars are left are pure chrome, plugged straight into the mixing desk with no amplifier or vintage warmth.”
Album opener ‘Death in Midsummer’ arrives as the first glimpse of Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? and sees frontman Bradford Cox make a biting acknowledgement of the inevitable within its subject matter. Upbeat piano and harpsichord motifs courtesy of Cate Le Bon comprise the single’s serene and dream-like compositional bones, juxtaposing the bleak lyrical sentiments offered by Cox above.
View the official artwork, tracklist, liner notes and supporting tour itinerary for Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? below.
Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? tracklist and liner notes:
SIDE ONE:
1. Death In Midsummer (4:22)
Caption of photograph found in book: “Revolution In The Streets of St. Petersburg, July 1917.” The photo shows figures of people running away from piles of bodies.
2. No One’s Sleeping (4:26)
On 16 June, 2016 Labor Party MP Helen Joanne Cox died after being shot and stabbed multiple times in Birstall by Thomas Mair, a mentally ill man with ties to a Neo-Nazi organization He shouted “Britain first” as he carried out the attack.
3. Greenpoint Gothic (2:02)
An architectural interlude for synthesizer and drums.
4. Element (3:00)
Elegy for Ecology (a landscape done in toxic watercolors)
5. What Happens To People (4:16)
Eulogy for “Emotions”
SIDE TWO:
6. Détournement (3:26)
A postcard from the slipstream
7. Futurism (2:52)
Nostalgia is toxic.
8. Tarnung (3:08)
A walk through Europe in the rain
9. Plains (2:13)
James Dean spent the Summer of 1955 in Marfa, Texas filming ‘Giant,’ before his death on September 30th.
10. Nocturne (6:25)
Live stream from the afterlife.
Total: 37 minutes
Deerhunter – 2018/2019 tour dates
SUN 11/04 SAO PAOLO, Balaclava Festival
THU 11/08 SANTIAGO, Blondie
SAT 11/10 SANTIAGO, Fauna Primavera
SUN 11/11 BUENOS AIRES, Personal Fest
TUE 11/13 QUITO, La Ideal
WED 11/14 LIMA, Sala Raimondi
THU 1/17 LOS ANGELES, CA Lodge Room (with Confusing Mix Of Nations)
MON 1/21 OSAKA, Bigcat (with Gang Gang Dance)
TUE 1/22 NAGOYA, Electric Ladyland
WED 1/23 TOKYO, O-East
FRI 2/15 NASHVILLE, TN Cannery Ballroom (with Faye Webster)
MON 2/18 CLEVELAND, OH Mahall’s 20 Lanes (with Mary Lattimore)
TUE 2/19 DETROIT, MI El Club (with Mary Lattimore)
THU 2/21 TORONTO, ON Danforth Music Hall (with Mary Lattimore)
FRI 2/22 MONTREAL, QC Le National (with Mary Lattimore)
SAT 2/23 NEW HAVEN, CT College Street Music Hall (with Mary Lattimore)
SUN 2/24 BOSTON, MA Royale (with Mary Lattimore)
WED 2/27 BROOKLYN, NY Brooklyn Steel (with Mary Lattimore, L’Rain)
FRI 3/01 PHILADELPHIA, PA Union Transfer (with L’Rain)
SAT 3/02 WASHINGTON DC 9:30 Club (with L’Rain)
SUN 3/03 BALTIMORE, MD Ottobar
TUE 3/05 PITTSBURGH, PA Mr. Small’s Theatre (with L’Rain)
WED 3/06 LOUISVILLE, KY Headliner’s Music Hall (with L’Rain)
FRI 3/08 SAVANNAH, GA Savannah Stopover Music Festival
Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? releases on January 18th via 4AD.
Words by Sam Wilkinson.
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