Bitte Orca
By now, quite a few paragraphs have been written about Dave Longstreth and his experimental outfit Dirty Projectors. A primer for the uninitiated: Longstreth, the Yale dropout whose distinctive croon is seen as either one of the best or one of the worst things about his music (count me in the former column), is a songwriting genius who’s unafraid to include a world of musical influences-hell, the world of musical influences-in his work. This is a guy who wrote a postmodern opera (2005′s The Getty Address) “inspired by Aztec mythology, the Eagles, and the 9/11 aftermath;” who crafted the last Projectors effort, 2007′s Rise Above, as a radical reimagining of the Black Flag album Damaged; and whose true secret weapon is fellow bandmates Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, whose cascading, ecstatic voices are the best in indie rock today.
It’s safe to say that, after Rise Above, their much-blogged-about live shows, several stints on NPR, and their recent collaborations with the likes of Björk (as part of a charity concert for Housing Works) and David Byrne (on “Knotty Pine,” the opener for the Red Hot compilation Dark Was the Night), the Projectors’ new album Bitte Orca is probably the most anticipated release (among those in the know) this year. Does it hold up to the hype? Well, hells yes.
But first things first, cats and kittens-a quick word about “Stillness is the Move,” Bitte Orca‘s first single. I must have read half-a-dozen reviews proclaiming that it wouldn’t be a stretch to hear “Stillness” bumping on Hot 97′s summer playlist and anointing Longstreth as some sort of hipster Timbaland. That seems a bit patronizing-and it feels like telling your Little Leaguer that he’s the next A-Rod because he smacked a double past the tubby kid playing second base. Let’s all calm down.
Don’t get me wrong-”Stillness is the Move” is wonderful, a slinky, revelatory effort. But it’s not even the funkiest song on the album-that honor goes to “No Intention,” whose beautiful harmonizing, guitar flourishes, and dignified claps create something akin to art-rock soul.
As usual, Longstreth isn’t afraid to build multi-layered, tempestuous anthems, whose time signatures and complicated vocals dip and rise through so many tones and textures, it often feels like he’s cramming two or three compositions into one (“Cannibal Resource,” the ridiculously good “Useful Chamber”). But he also stretches the formula with the sun-drenched prog-rock of “Temecula Sunrise,” the wistful (if a bit ordinary) “Fluorescent Half Dome,” and “Two Doves,” an quiet, aching ballad where (like with Coffman on “Stillness is the Move”) Longstreth steps back and gives center stage away, this time to Deradoorian. (Unfortunately, “Two Doves” is too distractingly similar to Nico’s “These Days” to stand entirely on its own-which isn’t the worst thing in the world.)
Bitte Orca is easily Longstreth’s most joyous work, and takes more risks than most other long players (even those who wear their avant-garde aspirations openly). It feels like a throwback, a pop album that’s tightrope walking without a net (and this is, when all is said and done, a pop album-the Projectors’ most accessible record and a perfect entry point to their work). It doesn’t quite reach the transcendence of Rise Above, but, in the end, sometimes art can wait.
