The sounds of music constantly change as the world does. Expanded production techniques, computers, and drum machines have made it easier than ever to record an endless variety of music. Yet what happens when one style of music created by one forward thinking band becomes a crappy fad? In 2000, the UK rockers Radiohead blended electronica and rock music to create Kid A. What made Kid A so groundbreaking twelve years ago though has now become mediocre at best. Endless bands following Radiohead's footsteps will fade into mediocrity as hair metal and disco did, but Yeasayer is one group who won’t. Their junior release Fragrant World, coming out August 21st, will likely prove that.
The Brooklyn based band started off as a mixture of gospel, world, and soul music with a tinge of psychedelic rock. Since then Chris Keating and crew fell prey to the electronica fad, but their sophomore album Odd Bloodadded elements of funk, R&B, and soul that outwardly pulsated through their music. According to Under The Radar, Fragrant World will also utilize electronica, but in a way that’s uniquely their own. UTR says Fragrant “is inspired in part by such dystopian stories as Blade Runner, but it is also a dense, ambitious, thoroughly modern, and complicated pop record.” Co-frontman and multi-instrumentalist Chris Keating also explains in his interview with UTR that:
I listened to a lot of R&B records while we were making this. I wanted to make a record that was legitimately, to use a bad word, funky. Listening to Teddy Pendergrass and then Aaliyah records. Something that legitimately has a sway to it… I was saying that we’re making sci-fi Pam Grier music, or like Ridley Scott… Across 110th Street… We’re using a lot of sci-fi music elements, and combining them with soul music is our overarching theme. I don’t know if that comes across, but I think it does.”
Adding Bobby Womack’s 1972 soul/blaxploitation film Across 110th Street as a reference should explain why the “2080” hit-maker’s eccentric ideas are definitely something to look forward to in the time of this mediocre rock band meets eletronica fad. I couldn’t be more excited to hear what they have to offer us. Corresponding with the news of Fragrant World’s August 21st street date, Yeasayer’s also released the album’s first single “Henrietta,” and the albums track list. Check out both below.
Fragrant World Tracklist:
01. Fingers Never Bleed
02. Longevity
03. Blue Paper
04. Henrietta
05. Devil and the Deed
06. No Bones
07. Reagan’s Skeleton
08. Demon Road
09. Damaged Goods
10. Folk Hero Shtick
11. Glass of the Microscope
Yeasayer “Henrietta”
