#30 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

I always find the bottom five or so albums the most difficult to pick. Because I’d say any album that falls outside of my Top 25 of the year, but still had more than a handful of plays in my rotation, is somewhat worthy of a spot on the Calendar. But with only spots 26 through 31 left for about 10-20 albums to fight over, it becomes more difficult for me to not just simply pick arbitrarily.

Yeasayer’s 2012 album, Fragrant World, fits that category. I just didn’t listen to the album all that much. Not for lack of trying or caring, there were just 29 more interesting albums grabbing my attention. But, given Yeasayer’s track record (decent debut album, phenomenal sophomore record) I picked up the new album again when planning out this year’s calendar, and found myself really enjoying it. Perhaps you will, too.

Yeasayer ranked in the Top 5 on the Calendar with their 2009 album Odd Blood, which I still find myself drawn to often. Fragrant World is not Odd Blood. But the Brooklyn band has found an interesting crossroads of sound that continues to work very well. Mining the sound of Duran Duran from the 80s, mixing it with slightly tribal, afro-dance beats and strange electronic instrumentation, the music is a bit difficult to convey in words. But listen to the video above and you’ll get it (you can start watching about halfway through, when some fairly sophisticated CGI effects kick in and make for a very interesting video). It’s as if the instruments the band are playing in the video are not plugged in — those sounds playing sound nothing like what those instruments should sound like.

And that’s part of the charm. Where did that sound come from, you’ll hear yourself asking, while you subconsciously move your head to the beat. Ah, caught you, didn’t I? See that? It’s infectious. Yeasayer. Check them out.

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31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar