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YEASAYER
Vampire Weekend may be Fuji’s big indie breakthrough act this summer, but some fellow indoids from Brooklyn provide welcome counterpoint on a similar exotic tip; a kind of Middle Eastern cognate to VW’s college-town highlife.
Success for both VW and Yeasayer seems to mean never having to say out loud that you’re global, because both bands’ sophomore efforts are cleaner and poppier than their debuts, whose respective multicultural vibes mostly distracted from how original sounding they were. Which isn’t to say Yeasayer, at least, has abandoned its infamous experimental predilections. Some of the sonic ideas on Odd Blood could be considered unnecessarily wonky, but the songs are pure dance pop and the singing by Chris Keating and Anand Wilder winningly exuberant and often quite soulful.
Unlike VW, Yeasayer doesn’t sing about anything more profound than girls or “sticking up for yourself.” They seem to be more interested in the possibilities inherent in great music-making software and the full range of textures that their rhythm machines can produce. Normally, this sort of thing only appeals to like-minded musos, but Yeasayer seems to appeal to everyone to a certain degree. They know what people like and they manage to give it to them. Everybody say “Yea!”
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