After a three-year hiatus, Brooklyn experimentalists Yeasayer are back with a sophomore release that proves they’re not opposed to exploring new territory and they’re not afraid to dance.
Odd Blood is a rollicking romp that tells the tale of love found and lost. The first track, “The Children,” takes cues from the chopped and screwed sounds of Houston hip-hop, making heavy use of vocoder over swaying beats. What follows is a whole block of New Wave synths that takes guitarist/vocalist Anand Wilder’s falsetto into Simon Le Bon territory. Though the first single, “Ambling Alp,” is catchy, the real standout is aching ballad “I Remember.” With this album, Yeasayer’s imaginative combinations pull them out of the folk/psychedelic/choral-indie-meets-roots-rock melee, and fortunately, they never lose the emotion that gained them their acclaim in the first place.