Yeasayer: All Hour Cymbals

By: Dennis Cook

This catches light in the wake of its streaming melodies, bathing it in an aura of clear reds and pale yellows, pouring out newly washed sunshine in colors so vibrant they shade our own hue. Brooklyn’s Yeasayer effortlessly skirt categorization with such slinky passion you quickly abandon any expectations by the pastoral space rock of the sixth track, “No Need To Worry.” When a group evokes the elegant spirit of both David Sylvian and Pink Floyd in the same piece AND still manages to sing out in their own voice you gotta be impressed. All Hour Cymbals (released October 23 on We Are Free) has the fine, fuzzy haze of TV On The Radio carried along by the forceful percussive clang of sweaty drum circles and the blessed clatter of ultra-cult folk weirdo Exuma. The Papa John Phillips style group chants and dilated pupil lyrics give them a modernized hippiness not unlike Tunng but Yeasayer also warmly embrace squirrely analog synths, soaring guitar solos and a breezy dance-pop flow full of sweet falsetto harmonies that oddly (but wonderfully) recalls late ’70s Bee Gees (listen to 1979’s Spirits Having Flown then tell me they aren’t sonic siblings…). Each return to this debut finds their ebullience and gracious vitality undiminished. Yeasayer are just getting started, offering us this open hand to grab onto before they really get rolling fast and furious.