Dirty Projectors
Recommended for:
fans of indie
people sick of the same shit
people who listen to words
Pros:
well written lyrics
amazingly well developed melodies
unique production
Cons:
heavy handed vocal effects
lead vocals?
Dirty Projectors have released their 8th full length album. This self titled work delves into a mix of influences and rocks back and forth between full blown indie art and popular accessibility.
I have just recently been getting into the indie treasure chest that is Dirty Projectors. My friend Jake put it best in saying they are everything a good indie group should be. Dirty Projectors use intriguing instrumentation, less common melodies, and meaningful songwriting. With such a description you might think that the band is painfully artsy and could not captivate an average pop listener. However, Dirty Projectors are particularly interesting because they hold your attention and comfortably develop melodic themes. With that, you can only guess my recommendation to you, and you would be correct. You should really flip through the band’s discography and find an album that tickles your fancy.
This album’s best feature is its mixture of influences. You pick up everything from middleeastern / eastern melodic lines to distorted brass and pitch altered vocals. Sometimes I get the feeling that popular music is just an endless loop of unoriginality. However, groups like this restore much of my faith in music. But past uniqueness, the album is not a flawless collective. The most noteworthy reason someone might not enjoy this music would be the lead vocals. Unfortunately, vocal tone cannot be completely altered with a few flicks of a sound engineer’s wrist. After a few lines, you certainly pick up the nerdy white-boy vocal tones. But, if you can accept Dylan, it should be no different here. Another minor qualm I have with the album is its usage of over-edited vocal effects. With the above, you might think that these effects were intended to mask the potentially unpleasant vocals, but they are not. I would certainly hope that Dirty Projectors understand that altering pitch does not fully strip the vocal tone. In certain instances, such as the middle of “Assent Through Clouds”, the pitch altercation adds a tasteful deeper layer to the vocals. However, the album collectively overuses vocal effects to some degree.
Ok, so this album has a bit of give and take. Overall, a cool grouping of music. But I have to wrap up everything by saying that this group’s ability to develop a melodic theme is second to none. Even if you are unfamiliar with the group’s work, hearing most songs for the first time leave you with a toe tapping melody. Furthermore, their work does not beat you over the head with the same melody on loop for minutes on end. Instead, the group virtually perfectly introduces, manipulates, and brings back melodies. No matter your taste, try this. It’s indie, but come on, try it.
Favorite song: “Death Spiral”
8.8/10
