The Brooklyn trio Yeasayer’s follow-up to Odd Blood continues that album’s maverick electropop slant, blending cool, melismatic vocals with crunchy electro grooves and elastic synth lines on tracks like “Fingers Never Bleed” and “Henrietta”.
But elsewhere, they have a tendency to bury songs such as “Devil And The Deed” and “No Bones” underneath brittle, staccato bricolages of sound, in which every element is percussive, and barely any melodic.
The results are too often the musical equivalent of actionpainting by machines, lacking the slinky charm required for funk except in isolated moments like “Blue Paper” and “Damaged Goods”, which sounds like it was played on a fairground calliope. A frustrating experience overall.
Download: Fingers Never Bleed; Henrietta; Blue Paper
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies