The Strangeness of a Band Makes for the Strangeness of an Album Name

Dave Longstreth is the bones behind the band the Dirty Projectors.  The lineup for the band has changed from its humble beginnings back in 2002 to the lineup there today.  Longstreth experiments with the sounds he wants to achieve in his songs.  The themes on the albums have been all over the place, from creating a concept album built around musician Don Henley (you remember him—“Boys of Summer” and the Eagles) to doing an album of Black Flag covers.  The band has been prolific in releasing material—seven full-length albums in as many years.

Longstreth and company started developing their characteristic sound on the EP New Attitude (2006).  On there they started to incorporate the vocal interplays and guitar interplay that would expand in later albums.  The band currently features multiple vocalists, two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, and a multi-instrumentalist.  Longstreth will modify the band makeup whenever a certain muse affects him.  The Dirty Projectors album Bitte Orca (2009) received strong reviews at its release and is the topic of this entry.

#190 – Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca (Metascore = 85)

“Cannibal Resource” is such a sweet song to start the album.  What I find most appealing is that it is a simple rock song yet features dense harmonies supported by harps and choppy guitars.  Longstreth weaves the lyrics through the harmonies and guitars in a way that reminds me a little of the Flaming Lips’ The Soft Bulletin.  “Temecula Sunrise” opens with a folksy guitar riff.  Listening to and reading the lyrics I almost feel like Longstreth is going stream-of-consciousness (“Definitely you can come and live with us/I know there’s a space for you in the basement, yeah/All you gotta do is help out with the chores and dishes.”) on us.  The music is so unorthodox in how it’s performed, with stops and just random restarts.

A few songs into this album and you really can’t pin the music to any specific type of rock.  At moments the guitars sound folk Led Zeppelin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin_III), but at other times the band sounds like Animal Collective (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriweather_Post_Pavilion_(album)). And I haven’t felt turned off by any of the sounds because they all seem to gel so well.  There is an element of the baroque in all of the songs being fused with rock, particularly “Two Doves” and “The Bride”.  The album is as pleasing to hear the music as it is to listen to the lyrics.

I’m really kind of blown away by this album.  Perhaps lyrically it’s not as interesting as a Hold Steady record, but musically this is a well put-together record that meshes different elements into a unique way.  There really aren’t any songs that I didn’t like, which is rare considering I usually find something I don’t like.  Ok, perhaps the last three songs are not as good as the first six, but they’re not bad songs.  “Fluorescent Half Dome” is too slow for the rest of the album, like Longstreth is meandering along to a finale.  But really that’s a small quibble.