Alchemusica : Yeasayer

This is the album cover. I don't know what it means either.

Hi, I'm Alchemilla, and I'm going to review an album that came out in the distant past of 2007. Why? Because you haven't heard it, and that's a shame.

Yeasayer's All Hour Cymbals

Yeasayer is a trio, and they describe themselves as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel." I don't know what that means. Wikipedia categorizes them as "Experimental rock" and "Worldbeat." I don't know what that means either.

What I do know is that they have a single out right now that you might have heard- Madder Red. I heard this song on BBC6 (my go-to station when my iPod dies at work) and jotted it down to download later. I found it, and All Hour Cymbals for next to nothing, so I got it. The first notes kind of turned me off, so I didn't listen to the album for about a month.

Lucky for me, I stuck the iPod on shuffle, and realized about halfway through the one of the songs that it was amazing, so I took a look and realized that, yeah, I had downloaded this album and maybe I should give it a listen. And it was amazing.

The song that caught my attention is 2080, the third song on the album, and one of the two singles that came out of the album.

This song, man. It's got a beautiful groove to it, and really drives the vocals. The hook is sung in falsetto, which is delicately delivered and perfectly harmonized. The first time you listen to it (which you can do --> here <-- and I highly suggest you do) you will probably not catch the lyrics. That's okay. Just let the melody take you where it's going.

Now, I'm going to go into the meaning of the song, so forgive me if that's not your thing. The song is about being unhappy with the modern life, and dreaming of escaping to a more rural life. (The lyrics are here if you'd like to take a look.) At the start of the song, it's got a digital feel, modern, synthesized, but as the singer develops more of his ideas of escape ("grab at the chance to become handsome farmers") it becomes more organic, with wind instruments and acoustic guitar, and more singers. You can hear the cacophony of the singer's thoughts and his struggle to shout over the sounds of his life, and even at the end of the song, when the children are singing, you can still hear the background of digital noise, leaving you to wonder if escape is really possible.

I'm always willing to over analyze a song.

Anyway, this song is a treat. It's unusual and beautiful, and surprisingly deep.

There are a few other gems on the album, such as Wait for the Summer and  Sunrise. But, honestly, it works very well as a whole entity. I'm not sure I'd call it a concept album, as it doesn't tell an arching story over all the songs, but they do flow into one another beautifully, and make the whole experience an enjoyable (if somewhat melancholy) one.

If you'd like to give them a try without any commitment, travel to http://www.yeasayer.net/ and have a listen to their newest singles off of Odd Blood. Madder Red is weird but good, but O.N.E. and Ambling Alp are my favorites.

I'm not going to pretend like this music is for everyone, but if you like experimental, odd, thought provoking, and quirky music, I suggest you give it a try.