Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Here’s a familiar story: Brooklyn band with experimental tendencies releases one of the first buzzworthy albums of the year to widespread critical acclaim. In the process, their sound becomes more accessible, opening them up to an entirely new audience and increased cultural relevance. In 2009, that band was Animal Collective. This year, it’s Yeasayer.

Consequently, the comparisons between the two have been prevalent. But where Merriweather Post Pavilion represented a more refined, less difficult version of AnCo’s prior work, Odd Blood signifies a considerable, but welcome, shift from Yeasayer’s past.

Lead single “Ambling Alp,” which was released in November and was a part of Yeasayer’s live show before that, gave a pretty good indicator of what to expect out of Odd Blood. The effect-heavy sonic textures, which drove the wandering tribal futurism of debut All Hour Cymbals, are applied here to electro-pop. The pessimistic despair of AHC single “2080,” which found vocalist Chris Keating admonishing his listeners, “Don’t look ahead/Never look ahead,” is exchanged for motivational platitudes (Sample lyric: “Stick up for yourself, son/Never mind what anybody else done”).

Elsewhere, Yeasayer has exchanged their attention to failed relationships, viewed through the lens of self-loathing (“Madder Red”), triumphant closure (“O.N.E.”) and desperate longing (“I Remember”). But the whole thing is wrapped up in synths, funky bass lines and driving percussion; tracks like “Rome” and “Mondegreen” leave no doubt that Yeasayer are trying to make music you can dance to. It’s an aesthetic that clearly diverges from All Hour Cymbals, and it’s one that Yeasayer executes with aplomb.