If you were not listening closely enough to the songs on The Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca, you might think that somewhere between folksy guitar, arrhythmic noise rock and R&B tunes lies a new song doomed for the radio and MTV. But pay attention, and you will see that it is here perhaps the best album of the year lies.
The latest album from the Brooklyn-based band, The Dirty Projectors, triumphs in its accessibility as well as its experimentation.
“Stillness is the Move” is the best example of this as it uses an R&B style but contains lyrics not reserved for a resentful ex-lover. The album gets better.
Dave Longstreth is the band’s founder as well as with its lead vocalist and guitarist, and he leaves no creative stone unturned on this record.
Periods of vocals, reminiscent to the sounds of the Talking Heads’ David Byrne, with whom The Dirty Projectors recorded a track this year, set to folk guitar might sound familiar if not for the experimental rhythms and time signatures. And like on the album’s best track, “Useful Chamber,” this is juxtaposed with periods of noise rock.
It is that creativity that makes all nine of the tracks contained within such a great album.
I certainly do not want to make it sound as if these different styles are haphazardly thrown together, however. They are blended in a way that takes a soft touch.
During the opening track, “Cannibal Resource,” the record establishes itself as something bizarre but catchy, and the album continues that way.
Unlike a lot of contemptible indie rock which sets timid vocals to soft guitar and generic love song lyrics to match, the peak of which appear on Scrubs, Dirty Projectors actually create something new.
Longstreth has a laundry list of complaints filed against him for The Dirty Projectors’ past albums. Most of these complaints center around the fact the songs are completely inaccessible and often experiment in sound rather than well-crafted songs.
This album could not be any different.
In the vein of bands like The Flaming Lips, the band is hitting its stride quite a few albums into their career. This is good news for fans as perhaps their best is yet to come, though it will be hard to top this effort.
This past week, all of The Beatles albums were re-released and re-mastered. That was a pretty big event in the music world, and it certainly serves as a reminder as to what makes great pop music. This usually involves experimentation or taking what came before and making something great out of it.
The Beatles certainly did this, and now bands like Dirty Projectors are leading the way in making creative new sounds and meaningful lyrics.
In so doing, they have created an album certainly near the top, if not the top album, of the year.
Four and a half out of five stars
Bitte Orca
The Dirty Projectors
Label: Domino
Released June 9, 2009
Available in CD, MP3 or vinyl
iTunes: $9.99 download
dominorecordco.us: $18 (LP),
$12 (CD)
CRITIC REVIEWS (out of 100):
Entertainment Weekly: 91
Under the Radar: 90
Spin: 80
Rolling Stone: 60