“O.N.E.”
from the album Odd Blood
2010
iTunes
An unfamiliar listener coming in cold to Yeasayer‘s second full-length album probably wouldn’t make it too much further than the opener, “The Children.” It’s a choppy, dirge-like downer, the soundtrack to a spooky submarine’s descent into the abyss in cinematic slow motion. But it would be a tragic mistake to abandon ship on this avant-pop Brooklyn trio just before the fun starts. First single “Ambling Alp” is an exuberant charge of bliss slowed down to a world-beat rhythm replete with echoing drum triggers, fluorescent synth-riffs, African percussion, and an uplifting lyric: “Stick up for yourself, son / Never mind what anyone else done.” It’s good advice, even if the band doesn’t seem to have taken it; the record is rotten with referents, from kraut rock to ’80s shoulder-pad-and-hairspray pop. “Madder Red” is all stuttering reverb and otherworldly tribal gospel vocals pulled straight from the Peter Gabriel wheelhouse. “O.N.E.” shares a lyrical hook with the like-minded Peter Bjorn and John‘s “It Don’t Move Me” but manages to one-up the quirky party-pop Swedes — and pretty much everything else coming out lately in terms of sheer fun.