Yeasayer’s new album Odd Blood really tests my devotion to songs’ melodies. The band is pretty experimental with their sound, and though I love when bands constantly try new things, a lot of the time with experimental rock, I’m turned away because I can’t hear past the “weird” factor to hear any strength in lyrics or melody – the aspects that I love in a song.
Odd Blood puts me in an interesting position. While there are many parts of the album that are loud and spastic, almost every song has a really strong melody to support it.
Yeasayer sound like a really intense version of an 80’s band. Their instrumentation is drum and reverb heavy, and they have synthesizers and noise in the forefront. Not to mention, Chris Keating sounds like he’s straight out of a Duran Duran song at times.
The 80’s sound lends itself to strong melodies and crazy instrumentation. To me, it’s the balance of those two that either make or break a song. On Odd Blood, melody is key, but there are times when it seems like the band forgot to write a good song because they were seeing how much random sound they could put into a single song. The first seconds of the album are a perfect example – “The Children” is a very annoying introduction to Odd Blood. Though the song holds a strong melody in the chorus, it is the only redeeming quality of the song.
“Ambling Alp,” the second song, tones it down a bit and switches the focus to actual songwriting. It’s a really catchy song. Not surprisingly, it was chosen as one of the two singles on the album. The other single on the album, “ONE” is even catchier. The Culture Club comes to mind, and I mean that as a compliment.
My least favorite song on the album is “Mondegreen.” The song seems comfortable with the constant repetition of parts that aren’t that impressive. Random counting in the background, the lack of any melody on the verse, and the words “Everybody’s talking about me and my baby/Making love till the mornin’ light/Makin’ love till the mornin’ light/Making love to the morning” makes for an Odd Blood low point.
Thankfully, “Grizelda” redeems a bit, and ends the album on a semi-high note. The verses are your basic introspective thoughts about the longing of a girl, but the chorus has a bizarrely beautiful collection of harmonies that seem to sing nonsensical phrases, but it does the trick. At under 3 minutes, the song attempts to bring everything back down after a 40-minute ebb and flow of good and bad.
Overall, I would say that I enjoyed Odd Blood, but only at certain times. Some moments are very melodic, powerful songs, while others are irritating noise rock experiments. Having said that, I do commend Yeasayer for not simply using the “experimental” label as a justification for settling for mediocre songs and, in turn, releasing really loud crap that no one understands.
