Look Ma, I did it. Two album reviews in two weeks. An even more impressive perspective is that this one actually coincides with the release of the album I'm reviewing! This is of course was unbeknowst to me until last week when while perusing a publication it listed Bitte Orca's release date. Well shit, thanks to the power of internewbs I've actually been listening to the album for well over a month now. So I guess fate had it that this day would come and so without further delay...
The chronology of my experience with Dirty Projectors goes something like this:
1+ years ago: I was mistaking them for DFA, the Brookyln based production team whose hands are all over a bunch of great albums. Where this miscommunication stems from, lord know. It's t typical me though. The same guy who thought Broken Social Scene was punk metal, and that Deerhunter and Animal Collective consisted of the same band members.
6 months ago: I got my hands on the Dark Was the Night soundtrack. The first track on the album is the collaboration between David Byrne and the DP's. Immediately drawn to this interesting and charismatic ditty I began my journey into learning exactly what the dirty projector's were all about. Yes, brooklyn based as well, but much much different. I ended up checking out Rise Above. I found it ... weird. I would say almost so weird it was bad. But one thing I understood was that there was some serious creativity behind it. My desire to embrace the creativity led me to persist. During this time dirty projector's released their first single off Bitte Orca.
2 Months: Upon my first encounter with lead single Stillness is the Move I nearly fell out of my chair. The song carried everything I personally need in a personal theme song. Ridiculous rhthym structure: check, Lyrics that not only are fun in content, but also delivered in quirky and off tempo precision: check, Loud and Beautiful: check.
Immediately this track was dubbed "my summer song" . Throughout this blog you could find at least 2 other entire posts devoted to how awesome that song is. So basically, this album was going to get a good review if it were just that song.
However, come to find out there was a lot more work to do. Having only my tedious experience with Rise Above, and the two fleeting examples of dirty projector's pop embrace I initially had some strong doubts about the rest of Bitte Orca. The songs again seeems long, and misguided attempts at proving creativity, rather than great song writing. But something entirely different exists here. Sticking with the album was important, because the epiphany occured. Yes, some of the songs sound like 4 songs in one (useful chamber i'm looking at you). However the difference being the pieces are more carefully executed with an eye on embracing the pop psyche.
It is true that at points I felt that bitte orca drags a bit, delves deep back into the randomness. This however is at the benefit of the consumer. For without the creative process how would we ever evolve? If we do the same thing over and over, how do you learn? And so on Bitte Orca the listener is handed some material that allows their mind to expand in comfort. To grow, almost seemingly alongside Mr. Longstreth and company.
Share and Enjoy a sense of freedom...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment