Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals

by Sarah Maybank

published: 2 / 12 / 2007

Label: Now We are Free
Format: CD

intro

Quality dream-like folk on first album from Brooklyn-based act Yeasayer who take all the excruciating cliches of the genre and then extend far beyond them

Chanted lyrics, folky harmonies, rolling drums. ‘All Hour Cymbals’ has the horror hallmarks of an excruciating sweat lodge weekend run by those strangely profit-attracting hippie types who drive round in rugged, top-of-the-range, all-terrain vehicles in pricey hand-woven, yak wool jumpers, while simultaneously lecturing everyone on how spiritually cleansed they feel now they’ve renounced all worldly goods. Before you run screaming to the nearest fun pub for more budget-conscious mind expansion in the form of a vat of WKD and some banging house, though, stop for a minute. Give ‘All Hour Cymbals’ a chance and you’ll soon realise Yeasayer are the nearest you’ll get to a mystical, peyote fuelled campfire singalong in the New Mexico desert, well at least until you can get to Heathrow for the next trans-Atlantic flight. 'All Hour Cymbals' is about moods, not hooks, and Yeasayer let their imaginations ebb and flow like the tides, seeing what they pick up on the way. ‘Wait For The Wintertime’ interweaves a majestic middle eastern melody with ritualistic vocals recalling 'Tusk'-era Fleetwood Mac, while the meandering ‘Germs’ straddles the technology divide with a bobbing accordian and a Richter scale-10 bassline. Yes, there are stodgy prog rock tendencies (the falsetto vocals on ‘No Need To Worry’ are way too ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for comfort and it has a terrifying nicked-from-Pink Floyd guitar solo). Plus it can drift out of focus as easily as a bored schoolkid in an algebra class (‘Worms/Waves’ is a dazzling beauty one minute, a rambling old man the next). But there’s not much else around that’ll help you get in quality dreamy-time like this does. Just grab a bonfire and a group of like minded individuals and let Yeasayer put the great into outdoors for the night. Tip: yak wool fleeces are actually quite handy in outdoor, 3am, unkind-temperature situations.

Track Listing:-

1 Sunrise
2 Wait For The Summer
3 2080
4 Germs
5 Ah, Weir
6 No Need to Worry
7 Forgiveness
8 Wait For The Wintertime
9 Worms
10 Waves
11 Red Cave

Band Links:-

http://blog.yeasayer.net/
https://www.facebook.com/yeasayer
https://twitter.com/yeasayer
https://www.songkick.com/artists/112691-yeasayer
https://www.youtube.com/user/OddBloodTV
https://plus.google.com/114584306783395853744

interviews

Interview (2010)

Mark Rowland speaks to Ira Wolf Tuton, the bassist with New York-based art rock band Yeasayer, about his band's acclaimed second album 'Odd Blood' and how it has both translated and also developed on stage

live reviews

Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, 12/10/2009

Yeasayer have been among the few bands that I know I should listen to but… don’t. They emerged in 2007 with their critically praised album ‘All Hour Cymbals’, full of experimental sounds and eccentri

King's College, London, 20/8/2008

ICA, London, 6/3/2008