Cryptograms is the second album from Atlanta, Georgia-based indie rock group Deerhunter, released through Kranky on January 29, 2007 on CD and vinyl.

This initial recording session failed, due to the physical and mental state of lead singer Bradford Cox, as well as malfunctioning equipment in the studio.

This recording session failed, due in part to the physical and mental state of lead singer Bradford Cox, who had influenza and walking pneumonia at the time.

During this recording session Cox had the flu, and his congestion caused his voice on the album's pop tracks to sound "really weird […] I always thought I would go back and redo them, but we never did.

While Cox does not consider Cryptograms a "reaction" to its predecessor, he noted in an interview with Stylus Magazine that the group's new record "developed out of different circumstances, altogether.

[12] In the instrumental track "Red Ink", Cox and drummer Moses Archuleta worked to create an atmosphere in which the listener is dreaming he or she is dead and the experience of death feels like reality.

He noted the negative connotations that come with being called a "psychedelic" band, and considered the group to be "pretty clean…[and] sober" in contrast, adding, "That’s funny that that’s people’s idea of what we’re into.

The same day he recorded "Spring Hall Convert" on a karaoke machine; Cox wanted the song to reflect the "acid trip" he experienced seeing his friends in this light.

Several days later, Sumner posted his video to YouTube; it consists of a man in a turtle suit eating pizza for four straight minutes.

[4][24] Pitchfork staff writer Marc Hogan wrote that Cryptograms "is alternately murky...ethereal, amorphous and incisive", calling the second half of the album "vastly more accessible" than the first.

[4] Mike Diver of Drowned in Sound found the album's two halves "absolutely coherent; the sequencing allows the listener space to breathe at the most opportune moments, and its leaps from ambiance into adrenaline-soaked enthusiasm...are worthy of celebration.

"[11] Tiny Mix Tapes's Paul Haney enjoyed the "psych-crazed pop" found in the second half of Cryptograms, citing "Spring Hall Convert", "Heatherwood", and "Strange Lights" as exemplary tracks.

[23] Nick Sylvester of The Boston Phoenix considered the first half of the album to be irregular in style and quality, but found that this gave the transition between its two halves "a black-and-white-to-Technicolor moment (or TV to HDTV, if you prefer): "Spring Hall Convert" combines Deerhunter's come-up and come-down into the most uplifting rock song I've heard in a while, an explosion of gritty Velvet downstrums and swirling vocal harmonies.

The writer found that when Deerhunter "aims for the provocative and the esoteric", the band often "overreach[es] and end[s] up hitting something much more ordinary, predictably "experimental"…in a genre that's supposed to be anything but.

Music written by Moses Archuleta, Bradford Cox, Josh Fauver, Colin Mee and Lockett Pundt, except where noted.