His fifth full album since 2007’s Spiderman of the Rings and his first since the expansive ensemble record America, Gliss Riffer is equidistant from Deacon’s power-surge style and his girthier magnum opuses. That Deacon hads returned to a more solitary style of self-producing on this record is instantly clear. Of course, his favourite themes and the best parts of Bromst and America can still be heard: cycles, nature, death, dreams. When I Was Done Dying is so typically a Dan Deacon song, with its chanted, anthropomorphic narrative, that it would feel at home on any of his previous albums.

But here it sits with tracks that feel a little more contemporarily (rather than classically) informed – Gliss Riffer returns to Spiderman’s love of pop, but after having assimilated a post-recession subtlety. Album opener and lead single Feel The Lightning, for instance, kind of sounds like if M83 had heard the Caribou record and just couldn’t contain themselves any longer. Take It To The Max arpeggiates gloriously, and the synth on Meme Generator trembles with such emotion that you can forgive Deacon his insistence on Cool Dad song titles.

Gliss Riffer is a very good album; a natural progression in the Deacon canon, best enjoyed during lucid dreaming or while snorkelling.

Suzie McCracken