Video of the Day | Yeasayer "Silly Me"

 Yeasayer are back in another album cycle, and the biggest concern is whether or not they waited too long to capitalize on their popularity. When they first reached a level of success that was probably the highest tier in music without having to be forced to feature Pitbull on your radio edits, the landscape was quite different. Yeasayer were blog darlings, and championed by the kind of person who was an early Coachella adopter, but since blogs have zero influence now, and Coachella is more meme than music festival, one has to wonder: how is Yeasayer going to stamp their relevance in the music world after waiting so long between releases? Firstly, let's give them some appreciation for the fact that, although they clearly have some celebrity connections (Kristen Bell was in one of their videos during Odd Blood's rollout) they didn't keep fucking that chicken; Justin Timberlake did that a few weeks ago and nobody cared. "Silly Me" features stop motion animation, coincidentally and perhaps unfortunately right after Radiohead did the same thing to mark their return. It's a good looking video, that works congruently with the bands sound of being familiar, poppy, with a tinge of uneasy creepiness. The sound of their new song is what's most interesting to followers of the band. Although Yeasayer could easily capitalize on the trend of having nostalgia for the recent past, (Y2K-themed dance parties are popular all across North American currently) and make Odd Blood 2, they have walked the toothpick's edge and apparently made some music that references their older work, but has enough of an update to be functional. This song, and perhaps the full length that follows, may not be mind blowing to anyone, but the work that's gone into appeasing all listeners with it should not be ignored. If you see Yeasayer around, buy them a drink. They worked harder than might be noticed on this. 


Add comment