All Hour Cymbals was the debut album from Brooklyn’s Yeasayer. It was a haunting, historic ride that merged elements of Middle Eastern music with classic rock. It was haunting and dark. Lyrically it read like an Aldous Huxley novel. Sonically it boomed with fear and deprivation.
It was an album that roared to the top of many top ten lists in 2007. It is an album that, when revisited, sounds even more satisfying. It gives the impression of a classic record and a peek into the future of indie rock—all at once. Not easy for a record that is only three years old.
The excitement multiplied last year when they announced a follow-up. Thoughts of what potential lay within the band were stirred. There was undoubtedly room for growth. The band was relatively young, and they harbored an original sound in an indie world where many seem to capitalize on the known formulas. The future was looking extremely bright.
Odd Blood is the fruition of that future, a much lighter record with less spirituality and history and damnation and apocalyptic lyrics, but more hooks and happiness.
Odd Blood takes a different path to the heart. It will stick in your head for days and very well could have Yeasayer’s name mentioned before The Killers and the like on modern radio. The hits are evident.
But evidence of hits and hooks don’t always equal creative growth.
The opening notes of “The Children” begin the album as one might have expected, with an eerie starkness but with slightly more curious undertones. The vocals are distorted. The piano sounds a bit off-key. It is an introduction to an album that doesn’t follow.
“Ambling Alp” follows “The Children” and starts in a much different direction. The rest of the album follows this track as opposed to the prior one. “Stick up for yourself, son / Never mind what anybody else done” may be hard to get out of your head because of its rich melody, but the haunting somberness from their debut is hidden far away.
By comparison one might wonder if there had never been an All Hour Cymbals would Odd Blood be as dissatisfying. And the answer to that is yes.
The gorgeous “I Remember” may be a bit slower than the rest of the album, but it is the most powerful track on it and may give hints into why this release sits in a much happier place: “You’re stuck in my mind, overtime.” Love can make even those who tend to be hounded with constant apocalyptic thoughts to be more pleasant.
“Love Me Girl” and “Rome” begin the second half of the release and point in the right direction musically and allow us to still be excited for more Yeasayer music. If nothing else, the album still shows potential, though its subject matter is lighter and its hooks deeper. And so it’s hard to dislike this album for what it is, a love-adorned record that shadows the lives of its creators.
All in all, there is still a masterpiece hiding in the veins of Yeasayer, but Odd Blood isn’t it. You can still enjoy its sentiments. |