Odd Blood

by Yeasayer

Overview

Don't judge a book by its coverâ?¦ or an album by its first track. Odd Blood gets off to an odd start with "The Children" -- a robotic, plodding song that prizes mood over melody -- before settling into a more balanced groove, mixing the multicultural sounds of Yeasayer's debut with a new emphasis on electronica, global trip-hop, and digital production. Like All Hour Cymbals, this is a thinking man's album, one that requires its listeners to put on their thinking caps as well as their dancing shoes. It's more urban than its predecessor, though, with most songs ditching the tribal harmonies and lo-fi analog ambience of the band's earlier work in favor of an electric, textured sound. "Love Me Girl," with its mix of Balearic beat keyboards and sampled female vocals, could have come from an Ibiza nightclub, while "Madder Red" strikes an unlikely balance between synth pop, Middle Eastern folk, and '80s dance music. Anand Wilder often abandons his guitar entirely, focusing instead on the keyboards that serve as Odd Blood's bedrock, and he sings the latter song in a voice that's clear, pleasant, and devoid of the yelping that characterized some of All Hour Cymbals' tracks. Chris Keating has similarly improved, so much so that he delivers a rather stunning ballad -- the Air-influenced "I Remember" -- with warmth and understated confidence. Odd Blood's emphasis on genre-mashing can overwhelm the weaker tunes, whose melodies are sometimes less interesting than the arrangements themselves, but the album has enough highlights to outweigh any filler on side B. All in all, this is a rare sophomore album that widens the band's sound without narrowing its appeal. ~ Andrew Leahey

Product Details

Release Date:	02/09/2010
Label:	Secretly Canadian
UPC:	0656605021010
Rank:	28341

Tracks

1. The Children
2. Ambling Alp
3. Madder Red
4. I Remember
5. O.N.E.
6. Love Me Girl
7. Rome
8. Strange Reunions
9. Mondegreen
10. Grizelda

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Yeasayer   Primary Artist
Jerry Marotta   Drums,Taos Drum,Percussion
Colin Stetson   Horn
Stuart Bogie   Horn,Jew's-Harp,Bass Harmonica
Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab   Timbales,Electronic Percussion
Jason Trammell   Drums
Kevin Bewersdorf   Piano,Synthesizer

Technical Credits

Steve Revitte   Engineer
Chris Gehringer   Mastering
Britt Myers   Mixing,Engineer
Yeasayer   Composer,Producer
Ira Wolf Tuton   Composer,Producer
Anand Wilder   Composer,Producer
Chris Keating   Composer,Producer,Art Direction
Jake Aron   Engineer
Jay Culliton   Mixing Assistant
Todd Brozman   Mixing Assistant
Benjamin Phelan   Artwork
Geoff Vincent   Mixing Assistant
Jason Foster   Management