Yeasayer – Odd Blood (2010) [Secretly Canadian] // Grade: A+

A funny thing happened to me on the way to my thirties. I suddenly found myself listening to and enjoying all sorts of things that I never thought I could. But there I was, 30, and suddenly listening to the same staples that made VH1 what it was when it first launched and my parents were still in their 30s.  I think I can now take comfort in knowing that I’m not alone in discovering this new sense of appreciation, and that in many ways, Odd Blood has become the turning point for this sort of musical awakening I notice slowly overtaking myself and many of my friends and peers.

When I listen to Odd Blood, I get the sense that the band (like myself) has been discovering the music they previously looked right past, like the Peter Gabriels & Danny Elfmans, who had no relevance to our generation’s youth. But now, for me, when hearing the next new thing isn’t as important as hearing well-crafted music, I finally get it.

If you’re like me and have spent the past few years playing catchup to music made before your own cultural cognition, you’ll hear a celebration of decades worth of well-crafted pop, be it the George Harrison-esque melodies in full bloom across “Madder Rose” and “Strange Reunions”, or the nods to Oingo Boingo all over “Mondo Green” and “ONE”, to channeling Tears for Fears’ sense of dance and the dramatic on “I Remember” and “Ambling Alp”. But let’s also not forget Chris Keating’s voice in the mix of all of this. It’s one thing for an Indie band to have a vocalist that isn’t afraid to push his falsetto into territory  usually reserved for the likes Prince and Justin Timberlake, but it’s quite another when that singer makes it work.

The most magical thing about this album is that while I can sit here all day and trace references frontwards and backwards across it’s nostalgic pastiche, each of Odd Blood’s ten songs still remain fresh, exciting, and totally their own. And that’s what compelling Pop music is all about: borrowing and expanding into something that seems brand new.

And as thought out and well-crafted as each song is, it’s the production talent of the band along with Britt Myers and Steve Revitte that brings all of this into the foreground and sets the band apart from its peers. Ditching the tribal/hippie schtick along with the Dave Sitek worship that overpowered All Hour Cymbals, Yeasayer has regrouped, keeping their best ideas from that previous album intact and taking them into a familiar yet exciting direction. Odd Blood transcends its particular Indie genre (Psyche Pop?) to being just straight Pop, but without the dumbing down that normally occurs. Is this one of 2010′s best albums? I’m going to say it’s the best so far of 2010, and sets the bar pretty damn high for everyone else to try and topple.

- My Pal the Crook