There's no doubt about it; Odd Blood is, to say the least...odd. But it's a good odd. It's the kind of odd that forces to ask oneself why this is the fifth time in row that I've listened to an album straight through. It's the kind of odd that questions an individual as to how the hell that sound just came out of that bass. But more importantly, it's the kind of odd that makes you rethink what music in our day and age is and what the future holds for generations of music lovers to come.
Brooklyn by way of Baltimore trio Yeasayer are in many ways, musical philosophers, posing questions such as whether or not music has certain musical boundries as to how far you can push them without losing control or by just making a load of indigestable racket. Odd Blood does just that; it takes the risks a sophmore album should take. Necessary risks that expose the listener to a multitude of landscapes, conjuring images of sound and textures that poke and prune the listener into, believe it or not, an individual of tolerance and change. With a group such as Yeasayer, one never knows what they'll get. Sometimes it can be a Native American chant with infinite amount of loops in the background or it can just be a clusterfuck of sound that fits and interlocks in perfect harmony like a puzzle.
With some sophmore albums, a number of groups fail to capture the attraction and creativity of their first album, which is also known to many as the "sophmore slump." If Odd Blood is considered a sophmore slump like big daddy music blog Pitchfork thinks it is, then dip me in shit and roll me in breads crumbs. It's a no brainer; any album that infuses new forms of experimentation takes more than one close listen to really appreciate what has been done on the album. To be honest, when Yeasayer's first single "Ambling Alp" was exposed early before the album's release date, it didn't catch me at first. As I started listening to it more and recognized certain rhythms or hooks hidden within the song itself, I was convinced that it was possible the album could be the same way as well. And its true--with every listen, there is something new to be picked out, dissected, probed, and examined again and again.
Yeasayer take a nice, comfortable leap from their debut album, All Hour Cymbals, in which live instrumentation mixed with pre-recorded samples were omnipresent throughout the album. Odd Blood continues to rely heavily on the pre-recorded samples along with a number of effects that trick the ear, such as Ira Wolf Tuton's bass sound in "Ambling Alp" as if a Korg keyboard was shoved into the body of his fretless bass. That sound you hear in the intro to "Ambling Alp?" Yeah, thats a bass my friend.
It's also no surprise that the album was inspired by a series of acid trips the band took while celebrating on tour in New Zealand. It's definitely an acid trip, but one that keeps your ears interested instead of wanting to pierce your ear drums with a pin like some other poor attempts at electronic psychedelia. Chris Keating coos a call of the wild-type falsetto that emits a hopeful tone matched with a Super Mario-like synth that descends in flickering notes that open the listener up to Keating's voice. Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian influence has a subtle, but substantial presence on this album, finding its way onto songs such as "Madder Red,"Love Me Girl," "Grizelda," and "Strange Reunions" in which Keating trades vocals with guitarist Anand Wilder for soft, trembling vibrato lyrics. The voices of all three members emit strong technological harmonies: Keating's wild yelp, Wilder's gentle, Bollywood-like bellow, and Tuton's nasally pitch perfect tone.
By no means is this perfect, but you can hear the dedication and hopefulness that was poured into this album. Secluded miles from the nearest bustling metropolis, the band holed up in Woodstock, New York where a little distance can go a long way. There's no question that Yeasayer have done something great; they've taken a formula that most fans have known them by for several years now and blossomed it into something awkwardly beautiful. Yeasayer continue to demonstrate and defy the standards that pop music calls for. And if one doesn't realize it, that's their problem.
Rating: 85/100
--Mike
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