I tell you what, it’s hard to get back over here to write an album review. Lately I’ve been so addicted to turntable.fm that I don’t know what it’s like to listen to my own music! Are we all here now? Just hit mute on the speakers, and come listen to some Wye Oak with me. Buy an album or two so you will know which track is the best to share on your next venture into the virtual club.
Wye Oak is another he-she band (sorry! No, it’s not a tranny band. I mean, it’s a she and him he and she matt and kim except their names are Andy and Jenn band) and I’m sorry to lump them into that group but they don’t do a whole lot to differentiate themselves from the sounds I hear when I think of Pomplamoose or She & Him. I found an album review for Wye Oak’s 2008 album If Children wherein the author called this sound endangered. Yup. Endangered. Well, it isn’t. Folk music, indie music, earnest-sounding music, frontwomen who sing through clenched jaws: we still like it.
Click to Enjoy Wye Oak – Dog Eyes
On this and on each of their previous three albums, they alternate between reserved and noisy. And the noisy ones sound good, too. They like the noise, not for noise’s sake but because, well, sometimes shit gets… blustery. And you will find plenty of reviews describing their sound as “punch-in-the-gut”, “moody and powerful”, or “huge-sounding”… But as turntable is teaching me, there are a lot of opinions on music out there! Did you ever notice?
(tongue)
(cheek)
If I want moody but powerful, I reach back for Toni Childs I guess. So I have an asshole and I have an opinion. But I like Wye Oak fine. And you will too. You will be showing serious indie cred if you drop this in a turntable room full of music snobs.
