/you’re stuck in my mind/all the time/
I discovered Yeasayer completely by accident. It was all thanks to Donald Glover, aka, Childish Gambino. He used two of their songs on his mixtapes, which led Brian and me to starting doing some digging on eMusic. The result is that it goes down as just another reason for me to thank the heavens that Glover decided to show the world how great he is at everything.
My first experience of them without the amazing emcee stylings of Childish Gambino was their Feb. 9th release, Odd Blood. The CD is fantastic! For me, it’s this year’s version of 2007’s Boxer, and by that I mean that it’s the CD I listen to for the 50th time and I still find myself pausing from whatever I am doing and thinking, “These guys are fucking amazing!.”
/don’t give up on me/and i won’t give up on you/
I’m not sure what their genre should be called. Genres usually suck, it’s better to just have fun with the whole concept instead. Thus, the best I’ve come up with so far is neo80sdarkwavesynthpopawesomemusicyoucandanceto. Apparently they themselves have called it “Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel.”
Yeasayer hearkens back to those days when you didn’t necessarily have to share your angst and heartbreak by whining about it to slow, sad songs. The best of the 80s (we are all aware of all the bad, but forget that there was some pretty good shit too) was often when you could be dark or sad or even apocalyptic, but show it by creating music you could dance your pants off to.
/hold me like you used to/control me like you used to/
Want evidence? Watch this music video, which in the world of Scott fits the following equation: frowning + watching this video = metaphysical impossibility. Or, to simplify that a bit, watching this video ≠ frowning. This is true thanks to a delicious cocktail of awesome and 80s childhood nostalgia.
Just about every day I fall in love with another track on this album. From the ups of ‘Mondegreen’ to the more melancholy but no less percussive or synthtastic ‘Madder Red’ and/or ‘I Remember.’
Obviously, Yeasayer won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if Yeasayer is tea then you can call me a tea-partier… wait, on second thought, don’t do that. Maybe Yeasayer isn’t your particular brand of whiskey, but if Yeasayer is whiskey, call me an 1800’s drunk in the wild west.
towardeverywind
if Yeasayer is a round of Boilermakers, call me Seabass.
The video is amazing!
And you probably heard them first on the “Dark Was the Night” compilation, but didn’t realize it. I think that is how it both started for us. It just took Childish Gambino to be like, “Check this ish out”. I know I am glad he did.
Scott
Ha, yes, I did indeed hear them on Dark was the Night, I was actually the one who told you that. =)
Sadly, I have been a bad music listener and have only listened to that whole CD once or twice, so I was unable to fall in love without the assist from the aforementioned Mr. Glover.
I am really glad you liked the video as well.
We need a new post from you, my friend. Especially with Wesle in the midst of some sort of self-enforced radio silence. And also, go fuck yourself.