Preview: New Yeasayer, Broken Bells, Caribou.

Yeasayer - O.N.E (MP3) (from Odd Blood, out Feb 8)

Yeasayer's Odd Blood is out this month on Secretly Canadian and to fuel our anticipation, which in my case is already to breaking point, they've dropped us another track by name of O.N.E. Its a glitchy psychedelic pop song, think MGMT messing with time signatures, with a punchy bassline and erratic synth lines. With the occasional reflective interlude, Yeasayer take a lot of time out of their songs to try and really mess with your head. Yeasayer in my eyes are getting 'madder' and more flamboyant by the second, and from the days of ambient pop folk on 2007's All Hour Cymbals, they've gone from an Animal Collective style weird cult following to a far more polished and expressive sound. What can I say, Odd Blood is shaping up to be one of my favourite releases of 2010 so far.

pre-order Odd Blood on Amazon.com

Broken Bells - Vaporize (MP3) (from Broken Bells, March 9)


Supposedly Broken Bells self titled debut album, due in March, has already leaked to bittorrent websites, but i'm faithful to to the industry like that, so i haven't touched it. What i have touched though is the latest track to appear in my itunes from the Shins frontman James Mercer and Black Keys producer (amongst many, many others) Dangermouse. As ever form these two, its oozing with 60s goodness, but this one provides a far more acoustic tone than the other two tracks i've posted a couple of months back. I really, really like this track - it sounds far more like Shins than the others.

 pre-order Broken Bells on amazon.com

Caribou - Odessa (MP3) (from Swim, out April 20)

Dan Snaith aka Caribou's last record Andorra was universally acclaimed and even scooped a Polaris Prize for its ethereal brand of psychedelic dance pop, and main man Snaith, a little over two years later, has announced his second effort 'Swim' for April 20th. He's already described its sound mainly in terms of water (hence the name) and is recently is quoted as having said that on the new album he aimed to make "…Dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water…”. He even uses the word 'slosh' to desribe its sound. The new track is definitely a signpost for what is to come - its a little more direct and definitely more danceable than his previous efforts. There's a solid beat, calm, soothing vocals and to top it off, strange, eery underwater sounds which litter the song-floor. 

NEW TRACK - Broken Bells - The High Road

Broken Bells - Broken Bells (due March 2010)(Indie Pop/Alternative/Indie Rock)

Broken Bells is the project between James Mercer (the main man behind The Shins) and producer Danger Mouse (famous for his work with Gnarls Barkley, The Black Keys and Beck) . They have announced plans to release a debut album in early 2010 - and to mark this announcement, have given us a taster track from the upcoming debut, by name of The High Road. Supposedly the project is far more than just another production trip by Danger Mouse - the two of them are in it for the long run, and already have plans beyond the first album.

The genre of the music (judging on just the one track) doesn't appear to tie itself down to anything, it's slow-paced indie pop with a relaxed and very slight bluesy edge to it, with some pretty chilled out crunching synth sounds behind. You can quite clearly hear the Shins' influence from Mercer's end, and DM (as the brilliant producer he is) brings it out and plays on it. They've made no pretences by dropping us a killer lead single first - and I judge that to be a good sign, a sign that there's a lot more to come from this exciting future collaboration.

File Next To - The Shins, Danger Mouse, Beck

Broken Bells - The High Road (MP3)

from the forthcoming debut album 'Broken Bells' , due March 2010