Warm Visions

Second album review ever. Let’s do this. Also, I know this album came out awhile ago, I just haven’t gotten to it.

Okay, so up next is Gorilla Manor by Local Natives. On Stereogum and Pitchfork they hyped it a lot, and provided two free mp3s, Sun Hands and Camera Talk. I like both of these tracks, their sound reminds me somewhat of Fleet Foxes, but not as folky. ‘Tis good.

On this album, I am not going in-depth track by track, because there are 14 songs which is a little large for me right now. I’ll just give a little synopsis for each.

By the way, I’m not going to score the tracks individually, you’ll just have to go by my overall recommendations at the end and my bad descriptions of the tracks the way through.

Wide Eyes – Nice vocal harmonies, good opener for the album.

Airplanes – Favorite track on the album, great lyrics and overall melody.

Sun Hands – More energetic song, I really like this one as well.

World News – Again, nice harmonies and lyrics.

Shape Shifter – Nice chorus and slick melodies. Sounds like a song on the radio.

Camera Talk – More “rock-y” than the other songs, very nice.

Cards & Quarters – Great harmonies, very soulful.

Warning Sign – Talking Heads cover, very fun song, great bass during the chorus.

Who Knows Who Cares – Sounds like Portugal the Man, nice drums effects.

Cubism Dream – Nice vocals, a bit jazzy even.

Stranger Thread – Running drums and strings at the beginning-very nice.

Sticky Thread – Pretty calm song, and again, great harmonies.Reminds me Grizzly Bear

Cool! Okay, so as you can see there are a lot of fantastic vocal harmonies, woozy guitars, and other things combine to make stuff that everyone will love.

I give THIS album an 87%. Yerp, an 87%. I pretty much love this entire album. Tracks that really shine to me are Wide Eyes, Airplanes, Sun Hands, Shape Shifter, Camera Talk, Cards and Quarters, and Who Knows Who Cares. BUT, you should just pick the whole thing up for yourself. Make your day. Alright, that is all.

Alright y’all, this is my first real album review. So bear with me here. To all who are reading anyways. Whatever. OKAY. So what we got here is Yeasayer’s Odd Blood. Overall, this album is fantastic. While I was listening, I was in a constant state of “what the heck? Is this possible? I have no idea what is going on, but I love it.” Well, I now know what is going on now. It is the sheer amazing-ness of a electronic-experiment-jam-craziness gumbo. All of the songs compliment eachother and fit well together. Imma’ gonna go through track bah’ track now.

1. The Children – This is definitely an opening track. Not much going on, mostly just lots of really low, droning beats and a Knife-esque vocal style(I don’t know what to compare that to, criticize me if you want. This track is obviously not as good as The Knife/Fever Ray, but you can get what I mean).  It’s pretty good, but the rest of the album just explodes with great. (6/10)

2. Ambling Alp – If you say my earlier post about this album, you saw my raving about Ambling Alp. It is SO good. So upbeat and danceable. Pretty uplifting lyrics, too: “Stick up for yourself son/Nevermind what anybody else done.” Very nice, Very nice. (10/10)

3. Madder Red – Another great track. Starts out more slow, but then gradually goes into another form with sweet sweeping chorus and verses and bright signing in the background. “I’m worth your time.” (9/10)

4. I Remember – Wow. One of my favorite tracks on the record. This is clearly a reminiscent love song (Haha, I Remember, duh). Keating’s vocals are clearly the greatest aspect of this song. His great range creates, once again, sweeping emotional melodies and personally, I freaked out when he went from high to low(ish). SO good. Just to let all you know, this is most definitely going to be on my best of the year mix. (10/10)

5. O.N.E. – If you read my other post about this album, this was featured as well. This is their second single from the album. You know how I said I didn’t like it as much as Ambling Alp? Well, after more listens, it gradually climbed the ranks. A very danceable-singable song, very up tempo I recommend it. (9/10)

6. Love Me Girl – This one took about two listens for it to “click” with me. At first I was just going through, and bunched it with the rest. But, as I listened to it more, I found the untapped greatness of this song. This song has so much going on it; Loons (yes the bird), Of Montreal-like vocals, synthesized voices, piano, slight Knife voices again, very insane and fun song. I really like this one. (10/10)

7. Rome – Lots of percussion and bass, which is nice. Gives it a steady beat which is a nice break after the slick Love Me Girl. Vocals and lyrics are very sharp on this one as well. I LIEK IT GUYZ (8.5/10)

8. Strange Reunions – There we go on that strange rhythm again. The clapping in the background keeps it kind of off-kilter along with the dizzying beats when the clapping is non-active. Cool guitar effects near the end of this one. (7/10)

9. Mondegreen – Very crazy song. Keeps things sort of unbalanced but it still gives a steady beat. The lyrics sound like a real pop song: “Everybody’s talkin bout me and my baby, making love to the mornin light” and sings like a “pop star” too. Reminds me of salsa, or something. It has sort of a Spanish/South American/Central American flair on it at some point. (7/10)

10. Grizelda – Great title. right? Makes me think of a witch. Great ending to the album, sort of winding it down from the craziness that has been created prior to it. It has some great Animal Collective-ish background voices during the chorus, which I enjoy. It really just has that “last song of the album” feel, and it embraces it well. (8/10)

Overall, I love this album. It will most definitely be in my top for this year. I will not forget this one. BUT my overall grade for this album is… a 93%!!! Dang, this thing was good. I am telling you, buy this now! If not the entire album, get Ambling Alp (which is free, here), I Remember, O.N.E., Love Me Girl, and Madder Red! Do it NOW! Feedback on your opinons! Yeah! Alright, see ya.