 | Yeasayer |
Yeasayer has returned with their follow up to the stellar All Hour Cymbals ealier this year with their release of Odd Blood. It seems that this release has stirred some love/hate reactions around the web, but for myself I very strongly and clearly am coming down in the love camp on this one. This album is incredible, and certainly sits as the leader in the clubhouse on album of the year so far for me.
A lot of times criticisms concerning a band trying to duplicate or lean on its past successes are thrown around in discussing new albums. Often times a band will try to copy what they did before and get criticized for it, or they will try something new and off the wall and get nailed for that. I think here is one of those sublime instances where the band went for something different and totally hit it out of the park.
The band really captured the world with their insanely catchy songs “2080″ and “Sunrise” from the last album, and this album has flashes of the pop genius that those songs were, but it also really tries to build upon them and give them to you a different way. “Ambling Alp” is in this way, and was the first single released and everyone’s first taste of the album. It is a little misleading because the album doesn’t sound like that, but it ends up at a destination that is way cooler and the journey is much more interesting.
There are more techno-gadgets employed here than last time, and more non-conventional song structures and timings used to give this album a somewhat off-kilter flair to it, but therein lies the appeal to me. You have perfectly constructed and focused songs such as “Ambling Alp” and “O.N.E.” on here right in line with off beat meandering dance hall numbers such as “Love Me Girl” and “Rome” (which somewhat invoke sounds along the lines of Of Montreal and Man Man, respectively). It is great the contrast and dimension that exists in this album. It really has everything.
No stone or sound is left unturned, and pretty much every trick in the proverbial bag of tricks is used here, and usually to great effect. Though this album is brimming with variety, it never feels forced, always feels very natural, and nothing really seems out of place to me. That is really a credit to the songwriting here because they have just some great ones in here, whether conventional or not.
Yeasayer has really come through and delivered with this one, and I’m really excited to see the aural spectacle of this album live when they play here in April. While they maybe don’t quite surpass and supplant the last album and gems like “2080″ and “Sunrise”, they weren’t necessarily trying to, and in doing so they have brought us a great step in a new direction. This is a truly inspired effort from these guys and they have firmly planted themselves in the company of the elites with this one I believe.
Give it some listens, it may take a few for it to catch on fully, but there is always something new here, as each time I pass through it I hear new things, and enjoy this one. Really impressed with Yeasayer on this one, really great album.
BV Rate: 88
Yeasayer – Ambling Alp – From Odd Blood (CD, Vinyl, MP3, iTunes)
Yeasayer – O.N.E. – From Odd Blood (CD, Vinyl, MP3, iTunes)
