YEASAYER - ODD BLOOD
February 07, 2010,
Written by Matthew Olmos
Label: Mute
Release date: 09/02/10
Website:Yeasayer’s Website
MP3: O.N.E
Pardon my French, but HOLY SHIT. Indie psych's Yeasayer have stirred up brains and consciousnesses with their amazing debut All Hour Cymbals since 2007. And when it was announced that its follow up would be out in 2010 and that it was called Odd Blood everyone went into instant waiting mode if they cared about the band. As one of the people who patiently waited until something came, I can say that hearing more than the impressive first single ‘Ambling Alp’ is cathartic and worth each nanosecond spent waiting – in fact, Odd Blood starts off the New Year with a contender for album of the year.
Strikingly, the entire disc bears a retro ‘80s sound (dig the Phil Collins fill in ‘Madder Red’) and is decidedly less cluttered than All Hour Cymbals. Yet the band’s fondness for futuristic sound fields and falsetto vocals remains intact, which keeps the album from ever sounding too kitschy in the worst way. The water lapping and delicately panned organ and effects in ‘Ambling Alp’ are a prime example of Yeasayer’s ear for ambience, and closer ‘Grizelda’ manages to use those honed methods to transform the song from a ruminating 70’s style George Harrison type song into a modern electronic paean with each chorus and the perfect outro. Even the brain meltingly bizarre artwork keeps the old-meets-new theme up, as some mid-‘90s computer models are laid over modern Photoshop filters and photography.
Each song is an earworm, baring some melody or hook or sound that is so infectious and impeccable that it just burrows in your mind like some wonderful yet mildly evil tendril of music. Not only do I look forward to each listen, I have a reverence out the dread knowing that the music is so well composed that it’ll stick.
It’s almost certain that this will have a Best New Music from P4K’s staff, and probably a 9.6 rating to boot. It’s too soon to say that this will be top of the year, but Yeasayer have made something wholly impressive and worth noting in the new decade. Kudos, guys.
Related Posts
4 responses so far...
Rachel
Undeniably one of the best albums I've heard in a looong time. Blew my tiny little mind.
danny
Great review, but I disagree with it! Haha, some great singles but on the whole I was disappointed with how...well, put it this way, I agree with Fern on this one for once, looking forward to her comments, haha. C'mon Fern!
purplesime
I'm undecided between the Yeasayer album and Efterklang's new one as best album so far.
And there was me thinking Island's Vapours set the benchmark...
fern
I don't know what to say, Danny. I dislike this album to the extent that I can't physically listen to it enough to summarize my opinions thoroughly, haha. Listening to it is like an endurance test for me. Which is mad because I loved All Hour Cymbals. It sounds like the Scissor Sisters take on Animal Collective's 'Strawberry Jam'.. sort of overwhelming and nauseating.
fern - 14/03/10
a joke indeed. [view article]
Aaron - 13/03/10
This is jokes! [view article]
danny - 12/03/10
This is absolute, unmitigated, GENIUS. Contender for my favourite video ever I think! Absolutely sick song too, prefer it to Ambling Alp fo sho. [view article]
danny - 12/03/10
This girl is amaaaazing! [view article]
duncan - 12/03/10
Nirvana, mainly because they were over and done with before I was musically conscious so Dave Grohl couldn't ruin them for me by how intrinsically annoying he is. [view article]