The Dave Longstreth-led band releases another terrific album with Bitte Orca. I had received my vinyl copy on Friday and the album is a fine collection of rhythmic pulsating, catchy, fantastic music.

The album lacks a bit of the punch and hit that their previous album possessed. It sounds like re-imagining the Black Flag album worked wonders for them. The best songs come in the middle with the two females delivering exceptional vocals. But the best one is "Two Doves" and Angel Deradoorian's beautiful voice.

It definitely sounds like for people that had never heard the band, they'll love this album. It's not as good as Rise Above but like that album, I imagine it will only grow on me as time passes.

Bitte Orca is my first Dirty Projectors album, and I think its fantastic.

I have a feeling it will be getting some really great reviews, as I haven't heard much music that sounds quite like it. It's a great blend of indie guitar pop, multi-layered vocals, and some great orchestrations. I think a few songs include string sections, and some have some good electronic beats going on.

Overall, great album. Thoroughly enjoying it. I think the best may be either "Stillness is the Move" or "Useful Chamber."

I fully expect a MC score in the 80s, and maybe even a great score and BNM from p4k.

I think this album stands a good chance of making my top 20 of the year, as it's only begun peeling back its layers to reveal its beauties.

I haven't heard Rise Above, so I can't comment, but it seems as though a lot of people like Bitte Orca more than that album. But to each his own, I guess. I do think you're right about people not knowing the band enjoying the album...that was certainly the case for me.

I, for one, really love Bitte Orca - it will likely find a comfortable home in my top 10."Cannibal Resource" and "Temecula Sunrise" are a great one-two opening punch, and despite "The Bride" being a bit weaker (probably the weakest song, along with "Florescent Half-Dome"), pretty much the rest of the album is solid, unpredictable, and varied in rhythms and textures.

What really grabs me is the attention to detail, especially in respects to the intricate vocal harmonies - it's practically unmatched. The closest rival I can think of is Veckatimest, though the harmonies on there are more traditional in nature. The harmonies on Bitte Orca, on the other hand, are, like the album, unexpected and perhaps even jarring, but entirely capable of wiggling their way into your memory.

There's nothing new Dirty Projectors are doing, if you've heard Talking Heads' best albums along with some Prince, Bob Marley and Paul Simon, then you can hear it. I was lucky to hear the band back in 2007 and with some patience and attention, I was even more lucky to actually like them. This new one has some flourishing string sections but it certainly isn't as spectacular—from top to bottom—as Rise Above is.

I think it's been an interesting trend where bands, which have been great for a few years now, are finally starting to get some recognition: see St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear. And even a few years back, it took bands like Spoon, The National, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Neko Case, and on and on, many albums before they finally got noticed. It's like those artists' previous albums got some attention and since then, the hype has been building and building. But nonetheless, better late than never I always say.

Bitte Orca is the best album of 2009 thus far. Nothing has even come close to being as varied, fun, listenable, well-constructed and overall inspirational as this album. It amazes me that this is the same band that put out Rise Above. Rise Above was a good effort but it lacked consistency and made some questionable choices. Bitte Orca doesn't have any filler and it's a home run. It is true that none of it is new but it is performed in its own way. People have been praising the girls on this one, but Dave is just as great with tracks like "Temecula Sunrise," "Useful Chamber" and "No Intention."

The only weak song in my mind is possibly "The Bride," but I see at as a quick breath setting up "Stillness" and the rest of the album. If Animal Collective would have trimmed their album two tracks and Grizzly Bear would have been a slight more varied, they would definently trump this album. Since this isn't this case, leave me with my Bitte Orca and I'll be happy for years to come.

quote:

Originally posted by crob3888:
Bitte Orca is my first Dirty Projectors album, and I think its fantastic.

I have a feeling it will be getting some really great reviews, as I haven't heard much music that sounds quite like it. It's a great blend of indie guitar pop, multi-layered vocals, and some great orchestrations. I think a few songs include string sections, and some have some good electronic beats going on.

Overall, great album. Thoroughly enjoying it. I think the best may be either "Stillness is the Move" or "Useful Chamber."

I fully expect a MC score in the 80s, and maybe even a great score and BNM from p4k.

I think this album stands a good chance of making my top 20 of the year, as it's only begun peeling back its layers to reveal its beauties.

Couldn't have said it better myself. This is also my first Dirty Projectors album and upon first listen, it's already one of the best albums I've heard all year, with only potential to be liked even more by me.

9.2?!

They like it more than Veckatimest?!

Wow. Did not see that one coming at all!

quote:

Originally posted by laughingstock:
9.2?!

They like it more than Veckatimest?!

Wow. Did not see that one coming at all!

It is a bit of a shock for Pitchfork to throw it 2 points higher than Veckatimest but it definently deserves it. One is interesting while the other one is actually fun to listen to.

Ahhh it's fucking good. I kept checking for a torrent and then once I saw the pitchfork review realized the whole thing was already streaming on Lala. Caught me from first listen.

Grizzly Bear is good, and really good at times, just maybe a little too clean sounding to be interesting throughout. I think Bitte Orca takes the next step and stays surprising, tuneful, and interesting.

Yes, it is better than Veckatimest. MPP, too. Though it does kind of wear itself out near the end, it'll definitely have a place in my top 10 at the end of the year.

It breaks my heart a bit that this record doesn't have a solid conclusion. It holds itself up perfectly for 7 songs, and then the quality of the final two isn't the kind of awesome conclusion that I was hoping for. It's extremely important to me that the final stretch of songs leave a really memorable impression. I mean, you would hate to have a great movie ruined by a mediocre ending (think most Will Smith movies).

In this way, Veckatimest trumps Bitte Orca.

I still need to give both of those albums more listens though, as I'm not sure I am convinced that the Dirty Projectors have made an album better than the fine-wine that is Grizzly Bear, which has grown on me immensely.

I like this only slightly less than Veckatimest, but both are really fantastic records. Sure, the last two songs aren't quite as good as the other 7, but that's not really a big deal, imo. They're still pretty darn good.

Veckatimest has grown on me by leaps and bounds, though I still feel that middle section (from "Dory" through "Hold Still") drags on a bit long. In that respect, I feel Bitte Orca holds together better as an album - as a complete statement. That's a really important factor for me. However, I feel that Veckatimest, for the most part, has the better individual songs. "Cannibal Resource" and "Stillness Is The Move" are both really fucking fantastic, but they're not "Two Weeks" or "While You Wait For The Others."

Be that as it may. They each have their strengths and their weaknesses, and they're so different from each other that I have no idea how I'm going to rank them.

quote:

Veckatimest has grown on me by leaps and bounds, though I still feel that middle section (from "Dory" through "Hold Still") drags on a bit long. In that respect, I feel Bitte Orca holds together better as an album - as a complete statement. That's a really important factor for me. However, I feel that Veckatimest, for the most part, has the better individual songs. "Cannibal Resource" and "Stillness Is The Move" are both really fucking fantastic, but they're not "Two Weeks" or "While You Wait For The Others."

Be that as it may. They each have their strengths and their weaknesses, and they're so different from each other that I have no idea how I'm going to rank them.

Yeah, you've really nailed how I feel about these two albums here. I agree that the midsection of Veckatimest sags, but at least it ends with that incredible trio of songs. And you're right, Grizzly Bear have the better tracks. Like I said, my biggest qualm with Bitte Orca is the lack of a knockout punch at the end; in this way, I feel that Bitte Orca actually makes less of a complete statement for me. As an analogy to writing, I feel that Bitte Orca was the great essay that lacked a memorable conclusion, whereas Veckatimest was the great essay that has one or two filler paragraphs, but knocks it out of the park with a fantastic, memorable conclusion.

Either way, both are getting "A"s, I'm just splitting hairs.

Thread-jack:

You guys are crazy, "Dory" is an amazing song, as is "Ready, Able." Sure, "Hold Still" is meh, but that's the only blip on the album.

On topic:

I think after track 6 of Bitte Orca, the album goes downhill as nothing really catches my attention.

My scores:
Veckatimest: 9.4
Bitte Orca: 7.9

I think Bitte Orca is a fine album, but I can't shake the feeling that most of the songs are just early attempts to create the song "Stillness is the Move".

It bothers me that there are so many of these types of albums at the top of all the critical aclaim this year. Albums with one or two phenomenal tracks, and a bunch of songs that no one seems to be able to even agree are decent.

quote:

It bothers me that there are so many of these types of albums at the top of all the critical aclaim this year. Albums with one or two phenomenal tracks, and a bunch of songs that no one seems to be able to even agree are decent.

You've made this claim a bunch of times already this year.

Just because a bunch of people have differing opinions on a majority of songs from an album doesn't necessarily mean that the songs are clearly bad. You can't cite people's disagreement as evidence that it isn't good, thus proving it is bad.

I think a lot of the people who like Merriweather, Veckatimest, and Bitte Orca are going to think that a bunch of songs are phenomenal and then are also very likely to think poorly of or feeling nothing for a small handful of tracks.

This happens to be the case with me; I happen to think there are more than 2 phenomenal tracks on each of those records, and I think that each of those records would have done well to throwaway one or two of the songs that I personally thought were weaker and weigh the album down.

These 3 albums would have all fit nicely in with the top 20 from last year or the year before; all of those albums have a weak track or two, or suffer from not having a track that everybody in the entire metacritic community thinks is absolutely phenomenal ("My Girls," "Two Weeks," "Stillness is the Move").

Lack of consensus in the details doesn't mean that there is a lack of consensus when it comes to placing the album on a year-end list. We are all going to love albums for slightly different reasons, and that's ok.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon. It's great. I can't wait to get my mitts on a physical copy of this, put it in my car and take it on a little roadtrip. I'll admit I was initially disappointed, frustrated and confounded by it. It is a challenging album, but by about the 6th listen things were clicking and I was loving it. The sequencing is a bit odd and I think I'm more bothered by the placement of two female lead vocal tracks back to back than I am by the choices for the final tracks. "Fluorescent Half Dome" is really growing on me and it works well for the closer though "Useful Chamber" or even "Two Doves" may have worked better. This is a great album without a single dud and it has blown past MPP and Veckawhatever (both good albums) on my list.

quote:

Originally posted by crob3888:
Lack of consensus in the details doesn't mean that there is a lack of consensus when it comes to placing the album on a year-end list. We are all going to love albums for slightly different reasons, and that's ok.

For me, whether or not an album holds together as a whole through its sequencing or through a consistent sound is often just as important as - if not more than - the individual songs.

Take MPP, for example. There are maybe only 5 or 6 songs that I will put on mixes, that I will listen to repeatedly. Only going by individual tracks, the album would garner a pretty low rating. But the band did a great job with the flow of the album, and the songs feel like they belong together (instead of a bunch of tracks that the band recorded and just threw on an album together). Because of this, I feel that the album works from beginning to end, even with the weaker tracks. The half of the album that is brilliant balances out the half that is not so much.

That's something that I think both Bitte Orca and Veckatimest do really well, too. Both albums do have their weak stretches, and perhaps could have stood to lose a track or two, but at the end of the day, I think of those albums as solid works of art, and not just that one album with that one song (which, I confess, is sort of how I feel about Phoenix). By that measurement, all three albums are a success.

Boring band.