Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is in the ability, the sheer desire in wanting to make an impact and be remembered for being unique that makes experimentation such a yearned for approach within art. It is in the craving for hearing a voice that is new, a sound that stalks the recess of your mind and the bright glare of showmanship that makes everything you have held before so honest and warm and the drawing of entering darkness so wonderfully enticing.
In that darkness will always shine a bright light, it will come out of the blue with a prayer and with good wishes attached to it and whilst it might be possible that it will sing to some that cannot be converted, that will not find the sound of anything other than angels crying wolf appealing, it is in Yeasayer’s Amen & Goodbye that the conduit of endearing new audition that makes the angels in Brooklyn weep with joy.
In Chris Keating and Anand Wilder’s contrasting and competing styles, there are times when you can find yourself wondering just how is it that Brooklyn managed to keep this group so secret for so long, it is to speculate that the area just never truly wanted to let them become consumed by the world and yet despite the contrast, the sound that comes from out of the band not only makes the New York suburb proud, it resonates with sensitivity and awe.
Yeasayer are no surprise though, eventually a band like them will always come round and be delivered into focus, will fill the ears with a subtle admiration that is hard to shift and as the album opens up like a rose finding the first rays of spring sunshine an appealing proposition and the bees a suitable partner between the sheets of grass, songs such as Daughters Of Cain, Prophecy Gun, the excellent Half Asleep, Dead Sea Scrolls and I Am Chemistry are not just moments of class experimentation they are a trial that is completed with astute awareness and panache.
A wonderfully adept album filled with sharp precision and great lyrical value, a sentiment of love captured by a great New York band.
Ian D. Hall