Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel

The North American album cover artwork originates from a medical journal Cox discovered in a thrift store. A painting in the journal depicts a doctor treating an ill boy, "while his mom looks on, concerned", as described by Cox. In photographing the painting, the face of the boy was obscured by the flash of the camera. While it "kind of took away from the photo" according to him, the picture became "somehow…romantic, the idea that there was so much emotion in the face that it got whited out." Cox described the boy as being "the saddest boy…lovesick and emaciated", adding, "I related to that boy so much that I literally, in the thrift store, almost started crying."[1] The European album artwork was created by v23, a group that designs cover art for label 4AD.[4]

Let the Blind Lead has been characterized as ambient, psychedelic,[5] and pop music,[6] similar in style to Cox's previous work with Deerhunter, such as the band's 2007 album Cryptograms.[5] Cox is drawn to ambient music due to its ambiguous, repetitive, and "emotive" nature. He considers himself inspired in part by the style and "sonic picture" of girl groups and doo-wop music.[2] Instruments heard on the record include the guitar, drums, glockenspiel, mbira, and Ghanaian bells.[6] Cox also considers his voice an instrument of its own. While moving toward using less layering effects on the vocal tracks in his music, because he does not consider himself a songwriter, Cox prefers to use such effects to make his voice more instrumental and ambiguous in nature. He has said he is "always more interested in the parts that are like vocalists, wordless vocals: the harmonizing, the oohs when the vocals become like an instrument."[2]

To create tracks on Let the Blind Lead, Cox continually adds elements to a song until he "feel[s] like it's getting crowded…When it sounds done, it's done. And if it seems like it's missing something, I'll go back and add something." Most of his music is the product of several hours' work, rather than that of a few days.[2] To Pitchfork Media Cox said that, with each song, "The genesis is usually a beat."[1] Cox considers the music of Let the Blind Lead to have a "dynamic arc": the first half of the record contains "more accessible songs. I was very depressed in the middle, and it created this kind of black hole of misery. Then I tried to bring it up again at the end."[3] Cox intended for his music to be "therapeutic", for both himself and his audience.[7] In addition, he wanted the album to have a healing element, and be something "somebody could listen to all the way through and feel like they went through a bad period of time and came out of it."[3] Pauline Oliveros, a composer who runs an organization that studies music therapy, was described by Cox as having "a big influence" on him and his ideas of therapeutic music. He considers music "the only art form I know of that has such an immediate effect on the human psyche", and found the time he first met and talked with Oliveros as being "like meeting a hero of mine."[1]

The album's opening track, "A Ghost Story", contains a sample of a young boy telling a ghost story, obtained by Cox from an internet audio archive of free music samples. Cox found the sample "moving", and used it to create an intro that would set the tone for the rest of the album. Said Cox, "I wanted to create a haunted record, you know? Kind of filled with ghosts. I thought it just set up the album nicely." He summarized the song as consisting of "basically just a cassette and effected hammer dulcimers." The sounds of "Small Horror" were intended to represent "banging depression." Cox described the song as being "the most depressing song" on Let the Blind Lead, and as being "concrete" musically. Instrumental track "Ready Set Glow" is supposed to "create the impression of passing out and falling back into a bed of strobe lights." Another instrumental song, "After Class", is a "sonic rearrangement" of a track produced by Deerhunter for the 2008 compilation album Living Bridge. The self-titled final song of Let the Blind Lead, another instrumental track, was intended to bring the album full circle, having it start and end on an "ambient note". Lockett Pundt, a recurring focus of the album's lyrics, created a guitar loop which was the basis for the song "Cold as Ice".[1]

Bradford Cox (pictured) described the lyrical origins of each song on Let the Blind Lead as largely autobiographical in nature, reflecting his life experiences

While Cox was working with Deerhunter to produce Cryptograms, it was considered Kranky policy to not print the lyrics of an album in its liner notes. This was a rule enforced by label owner Joel Leoschke, who believed the practice "demystifi[ed] the experience of a rock record." Despite largely agreeing with this sentiment, Cox chose to print the lyrics of Let the Blind Lead, in part because he wanted to "see what they looked like," having ad-libbed the words of every song on their first take. In an interview with Pitchfork Media, Cox described the lyrical origins of each song on Let the Blind Lead; they are largely autobiographical in nature, reflecting life experiences of his. The song "Recent Bedroom" conveys an experience Cox had when his aunt died: "She was in her bedroom, and everybody knew she was about to pass away, and she went out, she faded out, and everybody just started crying." Although he was "overwhelmed" by her death, it did not bring him to tears like the rest of his family. This event is expressed in the song by the lines "I walked outside, I could not cry / I don’t know, I don’t know why". Cox’s inability to cry stemmed from his having been "very involved in drugs" at the time, which he believes eliminated his "childhood instinct…to cry." The song attempts to communicate an emotional vacancy and sense of detachment characterized by "moving from childhood to adolescence".[1]

"River Card" is based on a Puerto Rican short story entitled "There’s a Little Coloured Boy at the Bottom of the River". The story tells of a boy who falls in love with his reflection in a river, believing it is another person, similar to the Greek myth of Narcissus. Cox attempted to capture "this childhood homoerotic energy…I remember experiencing and relating to." In the conclusion of the story, the boy jumps into the water and drowns, thus making "River Card" "a song about a dead child." The lyrical contents of "Quarantined" were inspired by a Russian article Cox read about children born with AIDS, confined in hospitals due to the "various lifestyles and mistakes" of their parents. Cox, who has a genetic condition known as Marfan syndrome,[6] related the article to his own experiences with children's hospitals. Having had many chest and back surgeries when he was sixteen, he "got real used to children's hospitals", finding them "kind of haunted, weird places." "On Guard" is described as "a sad song", the lyrics of which illustrate having to age and dealing with the "newfound anxiety" that comes with meeting new people. Cox explains that this anxiety stems from lacking "the energy to represent yourself to people. You’re always on guard."[1]

The lyrical content of "Cold as Ice" is based on a relationship Cox had with a girl named Alice. Having fallen in love with her in the fifth grade, he proposed to marry her on the school's playground. Alice rejected Cox, calling the ring he had given her "a cheap piece of crap." Years later, Cox worked with Alice at a Subway restaurant. Occasionally, "for no reason", she would ask him to watch her change into her uniform in the restaurant's refrigerator, which he described as having been as "cold as ice". Cox suspects that "she was trying to torture me or something." The song "Bite Marks" is about "sadomasochism and boy prostitution." In the song, Cox references an experience he had when he was kissing a man who bit him "really, really hard" on his shoulder, leaving bite marks "for like two weeks." This experience, along with other abuses he received as a child, formed the lyrical basis of the song.[1]

A recurring source of lyrical subject matter in Let the Blind Lead is Cox's best friend, Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt, whom the album is dedicated to. "Winter Vacation" concerns the first time the two met. Seeing him at a bus stop while vacationing in Savannah, Georgia, Cox was "attracted to him, but not in some kind of like, just physical way." Seeing "his melancholy, his sitting alone, staring at the ground", he "fell in love" with him. Cox and his family later drove to a beach; "Winter Vacation" relates to Cox’s memory of the beach, being "infected with that new love" found after meeting Pundt. The words of "Scraping Past" are about "moving on…And wondering if somebody is going to come with you or…stay behind." This uncertainty is characterized by several lines Cox considers "pop song clichés", referencing "rain that comes and goes." In the song, Cox asks Pundt, "Are you going to come with me, or are you staying here?" In "Ativan" Cox examines his addiction to the drug of the same name, as well as his relationship with Pundt. "It talks a lot about how things have changed between me and Lockett's relationship and how he's met a girl and…our friendship is never gonna change, but it's difficult sometimes." Cox asserts that he would "rather just take whatever drugs it takes to go to sleep and sleep through it…I'm not prepared to face it yet."[1]

Included with the European release by 4AD.[4] This collection of tracks was also released digitally by Kranky as Another Bedroom EP.[22]

1. "Another Bedroom" – 5:41
2. "It Rained" – 3:05
3. "Stained Glass Swan" – 2:58
4. "The Abandoned Closet" – 2:16
5. "Spring Break" – 4:57
6. "ABC Glasgow" – 5:02