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Since the release of their critically acclaimed 2007 debut All Hour Cymbals (We Are Free), Yeasayer have been around the world and back again. While their first record was conceived in total artistic isolation, constant touring forced Yeasayer to engage with their contemporaries, making them strive to set themselves apart as the most exciting and forward thinking pop group working today. Never content to maintain the status quo, Yeasayer aim to exist ahead of the music curve, inspired equally by musicians hell-bent on sonic experimentation as well as their peers more comfortable in a pop context. With this ethos in mind, Yeasayer emerged from the studio with their new full length aptly titled Odd Blood.
If All Hour Cymbals was Yeasayer's attempt at global and ambient cultural mash-up then their new record Odd Blood takes place on an off-world colony sometime after the singularity. Glimmering reverb haze is eschewed and replaced by a cavalcade of disorienting pitch effects and flickering ectoplasmic wisps. Instead of layered vocal harmonies the penitent processed vocals congeal into blots and blobs of otherworldly chatter. Many organic elements are left behind and replaced by truly unique sounds and rhythms that inspire the body as much as the mind. At times Yeasayer sound as if they would be at home playing live in scene from Blade Runner or inside one of Oscar Neimeyer's concrete modernist temples from the 1960s.
Odd Blood is an album divided into two halves. The album's opener "The Children" is a bold departure from their previous work, laying to rest any prior appraisals of the band beneath a pile of debris, as the sounds of prison labor support a damaged chorus of formant-shifted vocals. These musicians have a new set of studio tools at their disposal, and aren't content to rest on their laurels, constantly experimenting with novel ways of using instruments and effects units. The rhythmic onslaught continues as towering pop songs like "Ambling Alp" and "Madder Red" butt up against each other, struggling for dominance, each song having its own distinct emotional identity, and all maintaining a uniquely Yeasayer approach to the anthemic sing-a-long.
The latter half of Odd Blood is more experimental and playful in nature. It finds the band exploring more paranoid motifs, but never deprives the listener of persistent hooks and ear candy. Their songwriting runs the gamut of saccharine dance-pop, confessional dirges, character based story songs, and love ballads. Lyrically, this is a more mature and honest album than the first, as the band demonstrates a confidence to explore more personal themes amidst vividly depicted tales. This plays out at a blistering pace; clocking in at under forty minutes, Odd Blood embraces brevity without sacrificing depth or content.
One thing remains constant: Yeasayer are accomplished audiologists who are willing to pilfer decades of pop sensibilities to find pieces of cultural history to include in their songs. The band sprays out a very cosmopolitan, very New York psychedelic, dubbed out, electro-pop vibe without ever seeming derivative or contrived.
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