Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Brooklyn three-piece Yeasayer cite a collective acid trip in New Zealand as the catalyzing inspiration for sophomore full-length Odd Blood, which is notable since their music is often - and aptly - described as psychedelic. Much-buzzed debut All Hour Cymbals was a digital/analog/accoustic melange of dreamy pop that was frequently likened to CSNY for its three-part vocal harmonies, psychedelic in a corduroy pants and two doobies sort of way but not really mind-bending. However, on Odd Blood's first track "The Children," replete with a industrial percussion and heavily processed vocals, it's clear that the band has - at least sonically - moved onto the harder stuff, crazy club drugs with numbers for names.

There's an undeniable dance music influence on Odd Blood, part New Wave, part tribal stomp, part future rave. Doing away with their drummer, as well as much of the harmonizing and guitar arpeggios that defined the laid-back sound of ...Cymbals, Odd Blood favors programmed electronics in dizzyingly dense arrangements that invite chin scratching and hip-shaking, sometimes simultaneously. This electron-cloud of texture and timbre sometimes obscures but never erases the fact that at its nucleus, Odd Blood is a very accomplished pop album, one that hooks immediately but engages through repeat listenings. “When it comes to our aesthetic," says singer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Keating, "we ask ourselves ‘What will music sound like in 20 years? ‘” This album answers that question pretty convincingly, but if they're wrong and 2030 sucks worse than 1980 at least we'll have Yeasayer on the classic rock station.

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Yeasayer - O.N.E. (From Odd Blood)

Video: Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (Rated NSFW for nudity and weirdness)