Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan

Dirty Projectors are a Brooklyn hipster band with a plethora of recorded history behind them as well as a city population of previous members. My sights on them have always been diverted from my prejudice against the hype (and their silly name). Gotta say... I'm kicking myself for letting this pass me by but am also excited to know that the discovery period doesn't have to end very soon. This, y'all, is a great record.

I'll kick it off with my first exposure, a song called "Gun Has No Trigger". And as odd as it is, is still one of the most commercial of all of the songs. With its vocal background, it's almost completely a capella. But as the bridge moves into the chorus, it stays simple and small but is still somehow huge and swooping.




The most-oft singer, Dave Longstreth, follows a path of many indie rock bands. Some go overtly cutesy, the others go his way. He probably has no real control over his own voice and compensates by maneuvering to absurd melodies that serve to contrast the music underneath. This would be an insult if the music underneath was trying to be astute, straight ahead, rock or pop. But it's not.

The music underneath is just as adventurous. Mostly on the rhythm front. While listening for 15 seconds, you might hear just *mess*. But in reality, the songs have verses that move to bridges that move to choruses. And when you get to each section, you know you're there. It's just that you're not getting that 4/4 backbeat to make you Soul Train as easy to rock down the runway. "See What She Seeing" is a perfect example of this. While over one of this crazy beats, the first verse gets to run over a bent & flattened guitar riff. Same riff in the second verse, but this time is performed by a delicate string ensemble.

And even if the rhythm and melodies are odd and fight the average listener, the songs are still classically written. The themes are still love, loss, disappointment, desire. There's a lot going here. It's almost overwhelming. But it works. (4 of 5 stars)

"I ran across cyanide plains

Mind like a prison cell
But feet untethered and sane

I wandered out hopeless and sad
No thought of where I'd go
Or how I'd ever get back

There is an answer
I haven't found it
But I will keep dancing till I do"