Ambitious Mash-Up Spoils the Pot

Ready for the overproduced cheese-pop colossus of 2010? Brooklyn’s Yeasayer spent months laboring on it in an upstate New York cabin with piles of tricked-out equipment. They culled sounds in both the bathtub and basement to reach holy-grail tones all in the name of crafting an unholy songwriting mess. Odd Blood soaks up the dregs of Scissor Sisters — that Pure Moods comp with Enya that my Mom rocked on cassette every day — and ’90s shit-techno.

Yeasayer

Odd Blood

Secretly Canadian

Our irony-blind trio debuted back in 2007 with the mildly intriguing All Hour Cymbals, which pillaged Animal Collective indie concepts and blended them with Barnes and Noble’s World Music section in a messy organic smoothie. Now they veer into Love Jamz infomercial tactics with huge, reverberating choruses in a futile attempt to beat the cool-curve by naming the next big thing: bargain bin.

Any terrible genre you can imagine is gorgeously captured on this LP: “I Remember” is the unforgettable synth ballad, “ONE” has faux-Afro beats and falsetto squeals galore and “Love Me Girl” hurls Backstreet Boys melodies into the mix. How did this threesome not realize how far they’d fallen by idolizing Phil Collins’ yuppiedouche touch? I’m waiting for Kenny G and Chaka Khan guest spots on Album Three — if they were gonna go all out, they should’ve brought in the big guns.

Yes, lead single “Ambling Alp” saves these hipster victims by reveling in its big-beat cheese, and the gooey hook “Stick up for yourself son/ Never mind what anybody else done,” but it’s one of a few redeeming tracks where you can overlook trash-taste for genuine song craft. The rest of Odd Blood is so musically confused it needs a cold shower and a few weeks’ rehab from Pitchfork’s tastemakers.

Donate to The UCSD Guardian
$2515
$5000
Contributed
Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists at University of California, San Diego. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, keep printing our papers, and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The UCSD Guardian
$2515
$5000
Contributed
Our Goal