When Yeasayer debuted in 2007 with All Hour Cymbals, they were a Brooklyn art-pop group intriguingly out of step with their peers. They carried an air of mystery and surprise, and at their best ("2080", "Sunrise") managed to make offbeat mysticism and off-kilter pop music seem attractive and exciting. They were basically a rootsy, classic rock-ish version of MGMT then. Their fate seemed doubly sealed by "Tightrope", their laser-focused and damn near best-in-show contribution to the all-star charity compilation Dark Was the Night.
Then they arguably topped that with "Ambling Alp", the pre-release single to sophomore album Odd Blood. "Alp" managed to retain the leftfield bona fides within an easy-to-love glassy pop sheen. That duality extended to the lyrics as well: The song is about infamous Italian boxer Primo Carnera, but in the chorus Chris Keating sang the kind of wholesome fatherly advice you might hear in a Shrek montage.
Like "Ambling Alp", Odd Blood itself should appeal to a lot of people: Yeasayer have made a potentially vanguard record using the full range of possibilities of software-based music to create what once would have been radio-friendly rock. The elastic "O.N.E." and the Tears for Fears-ish "I Remember" are successful mid-80s throwbacks, achieving the full potential hinted at on All Hour Cymbals and rivaling that album's best material. Opener "The Children" also works by tailoring their offbeat tendencies into a tightly packaged song. In much of the first half of the album, Yeasayer demonstrate a rare craftsmanship and consideration that's too often shoved under the rug in modern indie music. Their lyrics may not say much of anything, but their agile arrangements, sense of dynamics and pacing, and singer Chris Keating's expressive vocals communicate plenty.
The rest of the album suffers from a major identity crisis-- few of the various far-flung ideas it explores pan out, and most of them wind up overcooked. On the whole, the record alternates between a prog-rock version of 80s UK synth-pop (and those are the good songs) and dreadlocky alt-pop or yuppie-era world music imitations (aaaand... those are the bad ones). Songs like "Rome" or "Love Me Girl" aim for ambitious sprawl but just wind up muddy, while the ballads "Strange Reunions" and "Grizelda" seem plodding and congested. The more in need of editing the music gets, the weaker the lyrics become: "Mondegreen" is the worst offender, with Keating chanting "Everybody's talking about me and my baby makin' love 'til the morning light" ad nauseum over shamanistic electro-boogie. (But you knew that-- I mean, everybody's talking about it.)
Of course, Yeasayer aren't going anywhere: quality singles, inventive videos, and solid live performances go far. But it's hard to miss the pressure the band was under to deliver here-- it's nearly palpable in their overfed production and search for direction, and as a result, Odd Blood is a bit too much of not enough. I went back and listened to "Tightrope" again. It remains charming, human, and assured, winning your affection instead of trying to earn your respect. When Odd Blood succeeds, it does the same, but when it fails, it fails badly.
