Experimental rock act Yeasayer have just announced a June release date for their new album entitled Erotic Reruns, which will become their fifth studio album release over all. This upcoming project will hold 9 new tracks, culminating into what has been called some of the band’s “most direct, cut-to-the-bone,” albums to date.
In addition to the release, the band have also dropped two new singles entitled “Let Me Listen In On You,” and “Fluttering in The Floodlights,” respectively. Sirius XMU premiered “Let Me Listen In On You” this past weekend on the Download 15 show, while stations such as KEXP and WFUV played it in the following days.
“Let Me Listen In on You,” is is a brash and engaging blend of different pop styles, mixing in Bowie-esque influences with dream pop synth sounds. The track closes out with some ambient synth noise, as a brief line plays a short melody before fading into the distance.
“Fluttering In The Floodlights” holds a different tone, hosting a funky baseline, world flutes and influences over an infectious dance beat. This catchy tune sounds ready for the summer with upbeat synth lines, percussion and melodies, along with somber vocals giving the album a more laid-back tone.
This entire project was produced and written by the band’s members singer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Keating, singer/multi-instrumentalist Anand Wilder, and bassist/singer Ira Wolf Tuton at their various homes in Brooklyn and upstate New York. This project aims to be a “back to basics” album for the band, which is why they chose to return to their native New York to record.
The band’s most recent album Amen & Goodbye, was noted as one of their most genre pushing, with the group hopping from style to style on almost every track. This was a point of contention for some reviewers, such as mxdwn’s Shay Collin’s, who called the project “Unfocused, out-of-touch gloss pop.”
“Pristine production, genre-hopping pop tracks and smorgasbord instrumentation characterize the release. What the album lacks, unfortunately, is a realistic emotional core,” Collins explained in her review.
Collins’ continued their disappointment with the release by stating: “The shortcomings of Amen & Goodbye are especially disappointing coming from a band that was long known for out-of-the-box compositions and bounding energy.”
Around the time of the 2016 release, the band gave a few insights into their home-recording process, which was also used for Amen & Goodbye. They described their rhythmic blends on the album as them “just hitting things,” to get the right temp they wanted.
“So upstate – where the initial recordings took place – a lot of the rhythmic beds were created just by us hitting things and being more open to hits being not perfect,” Wilder explained in an interview with NBHAP back in 2016.
Wilder later elaborated:
“It could be kind of chaotic, but if I had written it down it was good and Joey would say ‘what is that?’ And we’d say: ‘that’s what you just played!’ That happened a lot. I mean, that kind of portrays him as a bit of a savant, but he was just a very natural player.”
Erotic Reruns Track List
1. People I Loved
2. Ecstatic Baby
3. Crack A Smile
4. Blue Skies Dandelions
5. Let Me Listen In On You
6. I’ll Kiss You Tonight
7. 24 – Hour Hateful Live!
8. Ohm Death
9. Fluttering In The Floodlights
Photo Credit: Marv Watson
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