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The previous decade left us with music in a state of evolution, spiralling out of control. A hype machine; playing God with bands plummeting themselves either voluntarily or through a dedicated PR team, into an increasingly influential (when powers combine) blogosphere. It left us with many a popular act, usually American (although The xx managed to take the US before they even played a show there thanks to technology), getting rave reviews across the globe following a flurried spell of being the “next big thing” or producing the “album of the year”.Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend, Grizzly Bear – they all managed it. Question is, are they, and Yeasayer, immune to criticism to some extent because there is such a powerful buzz around them, the senses shattered and objectivity undermined?
It seems about the right time to make every effort to view an album like ‘Odd Blood‘ in its separate context; to ignore the surroundings, to take it and to play it like it’s a spontaneous purchase from a record store. Pretend ‘All Hour Cymbals’, the stunning but flawed starting point from the band, released in 2007, doesn’t exist. Everyone expects Yeasayer to step up, turning promise into something really substantial, but forget that. ‘Odd Blood’, on its own, would be an exceptional start to a band’s career. Context included, and it’s an outstanding follow-up.
Divided into two halves, Yeasayer seem intent on proving many points with their second album; the first being to remove a mass-produced tag of being “world hippies”, the second to demonstrate togetherness and even progression despite a minor line-up change, the third to prove themselves to be amongst some of the finest American exports. They come out of ‘Odd Blood‘ as experts at carefully crafting pop (‘O.N.E, ‘Ambling Alp‘), as well as pervious experimenters of the same genre (‘Love Me Girl’, ‘Rome‘). From the instant to the challenging, ‘Odd Blood‘ swings its position dramatically from streamlined and concise to restless and unpredictable.
The main talking point has to be ‘Ambling Alp’, the leading single, an anthemic tug at your heartstrings. The motto of “stick up for yourself, son!” and the sense of defiance and triumph that comes with it, sets a precedent for memorable one-liners with huge meanings: From the sex-fuelled “Everybody’s talking ’bout me and my baby, makin’ love till the mornin’ light” in ‘Mondegreen’ to the frank “You’re stuck in my mind, all the time” in ‘I Remember’. Every meaning and notion sees more poignant, more directly applied. And that’s very much replicated in the first five tracks of ‘Odd Blood’. Onwards from snarling, low-tempo opener ‘The Children’, the album evolves into a gung-ho giver of hits, ‘O.N.E‘ stands out; frantic drums merging with a stunning bass-line and the cry of “Hold me like the phone, hold me like you used to, control me like you used to“.
Balladry is where the band particularly shine. The latter half of the record shows a retreating to roots of old in ‘Strange Reunions’ but more noticeable is ‘Madder Red’; a song that explores the kind of melody every musician’s had in their head all their life, only they’ve forgotten to apply it. A Bollywood-vibe sets a background for which Chris Keating’ covers his melancholic vocals with. Keating is the show-man on ‘Odd Blood’; even though he doesn’t write or perform on every song, his switch from love-struck to love-less, from confident to thin-skinned, is strikingly evident.
But no matter where ‘Odd Blood’ seems intent on going, regardless of whether it plays quick-fix pop or something more indirect, consistence arrives in the band’s knack for making frighteningly complex music, deep; ideas roaming around in corners and the shadows. This is pop music immune to criticism, not because of its context, but because of its innate ability to cover all bases – to write pop at its purest form.
