Yeasayer is not selling out. Rather, the band is moving away from its psychedelic roots to channel an electronic sound that may mark its new album, Odd Blood, as one of the year's best.
The Brooklyn-based trio - which, along with the Dirty Projectors and Vampire Weekend, among others, has contributed to a revival of the New York scene - stepped into the indie spotlight with 2007's All Hour Cymbals and hasn't looked back since.
After touring with bands such as MGMT, the group chose to adopt a more traditional dance music sound instead of sticking with the soaring choruses and clear world influences that defined its first album.
The first single, Ambling Alp
a father's advice to his son, says, Stick up for yourself son/ Never mind what anybody else done is most reminiscent of the band's original sound. The song - which is actually a narrative of the Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling fights of the 1930s aiming to help the recently defeated Louis regain confidence - starts out sounding like All Hour Cymbals' 2080
but then shifts into the synthesizer-heavy sound that Yeasayer has adopted.
That sound is perhaps best featured on Madder Red
a track that seems like it could have come off a New Order album as easily as a Yeasayer album. The new wave influence is clear throughout the album and seems to swirl in perfectly with the band's existing psychedelic sound to create something original.
Where All Hour Cymbals seemed to get tangled up in itself at times, Odd Blood manages to avoid that trap, staying upbeat and intriguing throughout and never losing sight of the goal of creating a full album.
It is fitting then, that one of the album's most nuanced songs, Grizelda
a short, slow song about murder that manages to take the grisly topic and make it seem oddly entrancing, ends the album.
This is perhaps Yeasayer's greatest gift as a band at the moment: The ability to take any topic and make it tantalizing.
At one point during the song Rome
the band sings, There's no mistaking that Rome is gonna be mine/ It's just a matter of time. If Rome is defined as the listener's ears, then that time may have come.
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Culture
Adam Wagner
