Yeasayer’s new single maintains their psychedelic bent, which be seen in their bizarre but engrossing video. However, this song comes across as much more conventional and pop focused than most of the songs on their debut album. The distinctive drums with the world music influence, which often get them lumped with together with groups like Vampire Weekend, remain. However, on this track the harmonies, so much part of their original sound, have mostly gone and it's Chris Keating taking the lead vocals. In fact it’s not until over half way through the song when they break into falsetto that there are any harmonies. Perhaps this is to try to break out the out of the kind of typecasting inherent in the music industry, which led to Zane Lowe moronically describing them as one of the few barbershop groups you can like. Ignoring this though, the track is highly infectious due to its more stripped back and simplified sound. This has led to some touting them as a band that are going to 'make it big' this year, though they have claimed that they’re not that interested in mainstream success. Ignoring the hype, this is still a great song and could be one of the tracks of the year. Hopefully their new album will retain some of the complexities of their previous record.

Released 4th January 2010 on Mute Records

Words by Adam Saunders