Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

As a fan of a type of music that is rarely played on the radio, a little extra work is involved in finding something I find worth listening to – and more importantly – buying. Pitchfork.com has recently added an embedded player into their site from lala.com where you are able to sample most songs in full from albums that are reviewed. Pandora.com is a site that everyone who has any interest in music at all will find valuable. It’s a simple concept: Type in the name of a band or artist that you like and you will hear songs by that artist and songs by similar artists as well. On top of that, any idiot with an internet connection can give their two cents about anything (including the type of music that I listen to) they think other people will spend five minutes to read.

With that being said, I am somewhat confused how I got to the point of writing a review of this album. Since I live in a one income household where the budget for indie rock CDs is (at least in my opinion) way too small, I usually have several potential albums scouted out and know a lot about the band before I spend any money on them. I bought Bitte Orca
by Dirty Projectors somewhat on a whim. Now that I think of it, I believe that I did with the intention of trying to critique it on this website. I knew absolutely nothing about this band or album, but let me take a step back first.

On January 6th of this year, Animal Collective released Merriweather Post Pavilion and people typed in all caps (the equivalent of shouting) from their digital blog rooftops, “ALL HAIL ANIMAL COLLECTIVE! THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR HAS ARRIVED!” Then came May 26, and Grizzly Bear released Veckatimest to similar commotion. Just a short time later, on June 9th (and to much less fanfare) Dirty Projectors released their sixth album, Bitte Orca. This time the blogosphere whispered, “Is this the true king to 2009’s throne? Album of the year?” Well, is it? In short – no, I don’t think so. At least, as of late August it isn’t. I can tell that it is an album that sounds better every time you hear it, so ask me again in a few months and see what I say. But I doubt it will be this. Don’t think I’m saying it isn’t an excellent and well crafted album. It is.

The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that frontman Dave Longstreth’s voice is very unusual. When I first popped the CD in to listen, I think I was in a daze for the first two songs just getting used to it. So in effect, this is the first song I remember hearing:

“The Bride”

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I can practically see everyone’s noses wrinkled after the first twenty or so seconds. When you get over the voice, the guitar work and the vibe you get with the hand claps are both very pleasant. Then the full band comes in for a brief time before Longstreth and his female counterparts sing in a way I can best describe as “a cappella with accompaniment.” There is a lot of singing like that on this album. Another example, when I listened to the album for the second time in a row, the first song, “Cannibal Resource” is really an accomplishment. The bright, effects-laden guitar leads in to a battle of voices with up to four different parts vying for your attention. Add in the best acoustic guitar break I’ve heard in a long time and you have a very good opening track.

“Cannibal Resource”

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Some of the tracks are a bit more experimental, such as “Stillness is the Move”. It uses electronic loops and what sounds like Eastern influenced synthesizer. The music is great and so are the vocals, for the most part. Around the halfway point of the song the female vocalist sings a part that sounds like something Mariah Carey or someone like that would sing. For me, it feels extremely out of place and sort of ruins the song. (A certain website I won’t name recently declared that there are only 114 songs better than this released this decade. I wrote this before that came out and was very surprised to see that. The song is good and has interesting sonic and artistic qualities, but I just cant ignore that part.)

“Stillness is the Move”

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The best song on the album is Track 6, “Useful Chamber”. It goes through several distinct movements that mesh together perfectly. The first one, like “Stillness is the Move” has some Eastern sounding synthesizer before fading away to some sort of stringed instrument and heavy noise rock guitars all while blending together with multi part harmonies. Then comes a drum break with some subtle sample effects before it collapses upon itself into an angular guitar and bass explosion while Longstreth yells, “Bitte orca, orca bitte!” I don’t think it means anything other than two words that sound interesting together. When all put together it is a weird six and a half minutes that makes you wonder how the band got through the composition of the song while making it sound interesting. It’s a bit like a patchwork quilt (right, Jess?), some pieces contrast to each other make the others look better and when you step back and look at it, it all makes sense. “Useful Chamber” is in a handful of songs that are currently in my top tracks of the year.

“Useful Chamber”

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So, overall Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors is a pretty solid album. It has its flaws, but to be fair there are few albums I would consider perfect. Recommended, but not for everyone. Very eclectic.

4 out of 5 stars.