I know it is a bit premature to start thinking about the best albums of 2010, but I’ll be honest, I can’t get enough of Yeasayer‘s Odd Blood.  Not that we haven’t mentioned Yeasayer in the past, but I thought they needed their own Muffin article.

Odd Blood marks the second album from Brooklyn’s Wiki-described ‘experimental rock’ group.  For those of you that remember Yeasayer’s first effort, All Hour Cymbals, the group has always had an interest in pushing the boundaries of sound and progressive music.  Odd Blood picks up where they left off and takes it to an entirely new level.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with other music lovers about where the direction of super progressive music is going.  People have always marked Animal Collective and Passion Pit as bands that are pushing music into the next century.  But after 100 listens of Ambling Alp, ONE, and I Remember (all tracks off the new album) I would say at this point, Yeasayer is paving the way.

The new new sound begins with drums.  There is heavy mix of live and digital drums.  Add in some bizarre, quirky, percussion sounds, a ton of track layering and you start to get the idea of the beats Yeasayer employs.  On their own each drum track might sound like random hitting of a drum pad.  But once the drums are layered together you get this crazy cohesive sound that will have you trying to find where the kick and snares are, but nonetheless have you bouncing off the walls.

The layering doesn’t stop there though.  The instrumentation is simply insane.  I would say a lot of it is in the electro veign, but the layers are thicker than a Dagwood sandwich.  They mix and match sounds and put them together in a crazy, yet extremely catchy and danceable mess.

But I think the thing that marks their progression the most from the last album is the vocals, specifically the melodies.  The lyrics are interesting, but the melodies are just so catchy yet completely unique.  Sometimes you can clearly hear the influences in a band’s vocal melody choices.  But with Yeasayer its almost as if they flew to Mars, met some undiscovered alien culture, and came back with a new way to sing.  Not to mention, they continue to throw the Elton John-esque falsetto popping in every once in awhile.

And if all that doesn’t get your heart racing, just trust me that you need to get this album, because as of now, I think this is by far the best album of 2010.

There aren’t many remixes than can match the Yeasayer originals, but I thought Glasnost did a decent job.  You can hear more of their tunes and remixes at their MySpace page.

Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Yeasayer – O.N.E. (Glasnost Remix)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can pick up Yeasayer’s Odd Blood on iTunes.

Oh, one more thing.  If you haven’t watched a Yeasayer music video, you haven’t lived.

“Ambling Alp” by Yeasayer on Vimeo.