I haven’t ever been to Brooklyn but amongst the brick vaulting and mesmerizingly stark beams of light projected around the Arches on Sunday night, Yeasayer give a pretty comprehensive sonic account of why that particular borough makes for such an alluring destination.
The five piece play a lucid set of new and old material, the newest being from their latest, and well received, third album Fragrant World.
Now well into their career providing consistently endearing and accessible psychedelica they sauntered through their material to the obvious, if understated, delight of the crowd.
Although they haven’t ever seen the popular heights of MGMT or even Beck on this side of the Atlantic I gather they are much better known at home – that’s something we should probably address collectively.
It’s easy to compare Yeasayer to Beck or the Flaming Lips – they’ve toured with both but it would be lazy and the comparisons have often been written about elsewhere.
Instead, and especially from a UK perspective, they should be looked at in the same league as Best Coast or even sometimes The Decemberists who don’t get the press they should over here and seem sometimes like a niche interest even in circles where you’d expect them to be more well recognised.
And it’s difficult to see why Yeasayer don’t have that recognition: their brand of dreamy psychedelica is exactly the sort of thing that should bring mass appeal to those music lovers who eschew Radio 1 in favour of 6 music.
Their lyrics are down-to-earth and as far from the existentially unsettling, if beloved, ramblings of David Byrne for the Talking Heads.
They aren’t lazily grouped with a zeitgeist in the way Beck seems to have been by some.
They are consistent in their approach unlike the more eccentric and unpredictable work of, say, Royksopp.
They don’t seem likely to attract the sort of fans of, say, Arcade Fire’s sort who would rather die than talk about the music they love listening to for fear of it being discovered and de-indiefied.
For all the reasons above Yeasayer deserve to have more recognition than they’ve garnered to date.
They played an enjoyable set of solidly entertaining songs both new and old in good measure.
Laid back but clearly as self-assured as they are passionate.
Unlike a lot of gigs the crowd seemed there for the sound rather than specifically for Yeasayer and why not? Theirs is the epitome of the scene.
Words/photos: Simon Jones
