There’s something funky in the water in Brooklyn. In the last few years, bands based near New York City that once dabbled in psychedelic sounds or played raw and energetic rock music have been polishing up in the studio, adding danceable beats, keyboards and massive hooks to their musical repertoires. First, in 2006, the Hold Steady traded in a lot of its superfluous lyrical twists and raw punk aesthetic for stadium-sized guitar riffs and inviting sing-along hooks on “Boys and Girls in America.” Then there was TV on the Radio in 2008, which traded in its murky post-punk experimentalism of “Return to Cookie Mountain” for the Prince-like funk and art-pop of “Dear Science.” Last year, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs traded in some of its angst-ridden punk edge for a more approachable and catchy dance-rock aesthetic on “It’s Blitz!”
Now we can add Yeasayer to that list, as the band has traded in the psychedelic folk that defined its great 2006 debut album “All Hour Cymbals” for the R&B-inflected electropop sheen of “Odd Blood,” the band’s great sophomore record.
Fans of “All Hour Cymbals” be warned: this is not the Yeasayer you are used to. Of course, fans have probably already come to this realization following the only two songs released by Yeasayer last year, the “Dark Was the Night” compilation’s “Tightrope” and the first single from “Odd Blood” titled “Ambling Alp.”
“Tightrope” and “Ambling Alp” set the bar almost impossibly high for the rest of the album; they can even be a bit misleading stylistically. The hooks that pervade these songs are almost ever-present on “Odd Blood,” but the out-of-this-world, alien-like sound of those two tracks is almost nowhere to be found, except for the album’s opening number, “The Children,” where lead vocalist Chris Keating’s voice is processed to an unrecognizable robotic drone.
Elsewhere, the album is replete with contagious hooks and lyrics that range from the ecstatically in love synth-pop of “O.N.E.” to the completely lovelorn R&B inflections of “Love Me Girl.” It’s important to make plain that these songs all deal in some way with love, sex and the bewildering sensations that result from having (or not having) either of those things.
Stylistically, the album throws itself between different genres but intently keeps the focus on being both danceable and experimental at the same time. The guitars are drenched in reverb, tribal drums echo throughout the songs and bubbly keyboard lines jump in and out of the music as if this were the 1980s all over again. Keating even adds a horn section to boost the funky factor of “Mondegreen,” which eventually gives way to the swampy dream pop of album-closer “Grizelda,” inspired by Florida drug lord Griselda Blanco. It’s a euphoric and cathartic way to end.
Clocking in at 10 tracks in just under 40 minutes, “Odd Blood” grabs the listener by the hips and drags them along for an incredibly exotic ride that explores the possibilities of infectious indie music, merging indie with psychedelic rock, R&B, funk, pop and folk, creating an individual style all their own. It’s as sonically indebted to the music of its ancestors as it is uniquely forward-thinking in style and execution.
If of Montreal and Animal Collective had a schizophrenic baby, it would probably sound a lot like “Odd Blood.” Those may be some heavy hitters to be sitting at the same table with, but Yeasayer holds its own and sticks up for itself.
E-mail Robinson at crobinson@media.ucla.edu.