Odd Blood – Yeasayer

For Brooklyn’s Yeasayer the decision process behind the titling of their second album belongs unequivocally to the Ronseal school of product marketing. Odd Blood you see does exactly what it says on the tin.

Eccentricity courses through its life stream from the CGI paper-mache monstrosity on its front cover right through to concluding track ‘Grizelda’s throbbing falsetto fade out pastiche.

Initially this no holds barred approach to sonics can be a tad overwhelming. Like a first date spilling her chequered history of emotional trauma before the starters have been served, it can be tempting to wish you weren’t getting all the crazy all at once. Embrace the abnormal in Odd Blood though and The Counterfit guarantees you’ll be in for some metaphorical nookie by midnight.

Lead single ‘Ambling Alp’ with its rambunctious polyrhythmic energy is undoubtedly the LP’s magnum opus. Glittering from the sheen  of Chris Keating and co’s world music melting pot, the dizzying fizz of it’s “stick up for yourself son” chorus defies the weight of an impossible array of ideas thrust upon its nimble four minute frame.

Such a pick ‘n’ mix approach to influences weaves a remarkably well textured pattern across the album’s duration. Occasionally an over zealous application of vocal decoder and off beat percussion will throw up a dud in the shape of ‘Strange Reunions’ but even this runt of the litter begs forgiveness by virtue of its resemblance to the woozy album opener ‘The Children’.

These however, are the exceptions to the frenetic carnival vibe that the pulsating electronica of ‘Rome’ and ‘Mondegreen’ bring forth in swathes. Keating’s lyrics admittedly run asunder when read on paper yet in the company of ‘ONE’s tropical tub thumping, the nasal rasp of “Hold me like before / Hold me like you used to” scans as anthemically as any pop chorus.

The result is that you begin to think Yeasayer’s choice of album title on their sophomore record has sold them too short. For Odd Blood is often as inspired as it is bizarre, as baffling as it is brilliant and as eclectic as it is essential.

8/10