This isn't a review. It's just an observation. Sometimes I realize that, even though I enjoy almost every song I've ever heard from a band, I just don't own any of their music or I haven't really ever thought of them as a band that I like.
The other night, I watched the Bowery Presents livestream of The Dirty Projectors' MHOW show on my iPhone while CoolMom grumbled beside me as she tried to sleep. I lay there mesmerized by Dave Longstreth's polarizing voice, his weird, lefty guitar playing, and the vocals from the trio of Amber Coffman, Haley Dekle, and newest member Olga Bell. And it amazed me that, like a film director, over the years, Longstreth had assembled all of these musicians and singers to bring the sounds bouncing around in his head to life this way.
Dirty Projectors' last release, Bitte Orca, slugged it out with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion and Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest for "Best Album of 2009" honors throughout the mindiesphere, but I didn't buy Bitte Orca until yesterday morning. Seeing those songs performed, along with the new ones, "live" on that little screen made me realize just how good Dirty Projectors are right now.
They're weird, sure. But it's the melding of the weirdness, the discord, the sometimes intentionally-off harmonies, with the familiar, the "pretty" that really works for them. Swing Lo Magellan takes this effect to another level with a push toward greater accessibility in their sound.
2012 will bring new releases from Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, but I think the latest effort from Dirty Projectors is going to be difficult to top.
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