Yeasayer - Odd Blood

In the past 24 hours or so I've learned a very hard lesson about Yeasayer. They will probably always and forever be a disappointment to me. The root of this frustration is easy to finger but harder to justify. Basically, Yeasayer aren't the band that I want them to be.

Now, I understand that that's all kinds of unfair. You listen to bands as they are, not as they should be. But what about wanting bands to be all that they could be? That logic suggests that Yeasayer is making decisions that actively squander their limitless talent.

Exactly.

Yeasayer knows how to write patchouli-scented anthems ("Red Cave" and "2080") for hippie communes. This is the band who wrote 'Tightrope," which was arguably the best song on Dark was the Night (which an unstoppable Voltron of indie rock greatness). I suspect, perhaps unfairly, that Yeasayer could write songs like these all day long but, for whatever reason, they're choosing to write MOR indie pop. The fact of the matter is that Odd Blood contains almost nothing that made the band promising on All Hours Cymbals.

The album begins with the tuneless clunker "The Children." Chris Keating's unique voice is given the AutoTune treatment for no ostensible reason. And most of the rest of it doesn't get much better than the opener. Both "Mondegreen" and "Rome" are unsalvageable messes of half-baked ideas that are frankly embarrassing. "Madder Rose" might be the worst offender: it's getting continuous play on a new age/adult contemporary station in a Walgreen's in Sedona, AZ. The endlessly ascending melodies of Yeasayer grow tiresome very quickly. Everything can't be so reverential or glorious. "I Remember" swells and burst with the gas of its own earnestness.

So, what works? "Grizelda" bears the weight of a few listens, although its medieval referent is a morality tale about wifely submissiveness. Elsewhere, "O.N.E." percolates with bubbling synthesizers and a dynamic backbeat. And Keating actually sounds more alive on this track: he's ecstatically bitter, singing "You don't move me anymore/And I'm glad that you don't/'Cause I can't take it anymore." The only real highlight here is the lead single, "Ambling Alp." This is the kind of song that made Yeasayer so initially promising. It's a glorious pep talk ("Stick up for yourself, son!") that takes Joe Louis' career (especially his fights against Max Schmeling and Primo Carnera) as a point of literal inspiration.

This is a crushingly disappointing album, especially considering that Yeasayer participated in my absolute favorite episode of La Blogotheque's Take Away Show. The band (and about a dozen friends) was at the height of their promise, singing "2080" and "Tightrope." Watch the amazing performance right now:



Rating: 4/10