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Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2012.
YACHT
See Mystery Lights
DFA
out July 28th
51/100
[Rating Scale]
[rating:51/100]
I sincerely believe that there came a moment in everybody’s lives early last year when they first heard the Ting Tings’ “Shut Up And Let Me Go”. There we were, listening to the most hotly tipped music this side of Little Boots, smugly nodding along to a pretty decent song. But then… that yelp! “HEY!”. Computers exploded everywhere, speaker systems were quickly turned off, and thousands of hypem.com perusers trotted down to the nearest Doctor’s surgery to have their ear drums checked for signs of permanent damage. I may still have use of my ears, but Yacht’s latest album, “See Mystery Lights”, contains far too many moments like that. Depressingly, these moments scar an album that is, for the most part, an exceptionally impressive artistic statement and further proof of the genius of James Murphy’s DFA.
Opener “Ring The Bell” manages to avoid any of these pitfalls and is certainly one of the highlights of the record due mostly to its well developed lyrics that centre around the concept of the afterlife. Carrying off a psychedelica tinged 80s pop feel, comparisons to The Juan Maclean and LCD Soundsystem seem well justified. The following song “The Afterlife” unsurprisingly continues with the same discussion of life after death, but contains the record’s first Ting Tings moment; not only a yelped “HEY!”, but just Claire Evans’ lyrics in general. They sound tired, flat, monotonous and all-round-blatantly dull, if I’m allowed to be honest (which I assume I am). The band may argue that this is some sort of artistic expression relating to the afterlife, indeed I would hope that this is intentional, but the fact remains that it’s an exceptionally tedious style that is repeated throughout the album, and I can guarantee that many like minded people will find themselves pressing the stop button at this point.
[audio=http://pmatunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/01-ring-the-bell.mp3,YACHT - Ring The Bell]
This is a great shame, because if I had not been forced to return to the record because I had to write this review, I wouldn’t have heard arguably the strongest song on the album, “I’m In Love With A Ripper”. It begins with the sort of insanely original and smooth sounding drum beat that could well be the glitchy love child of James Murphy and SebastiAn. Unfortunately, instead of nailing the listener with an unforgettable chorus, the song meanders off into the psychedelic refrain of “I’m in love with a ripper”, which I assume is intended to be the “chorus” of the song, but sounds more like a rejected Animal Collective bridge.
[audio=http://pmatunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/03-im-in-love-with-a-ripper.mp3,YACHT - I'm In Love With A Ripper]
“See Mystery Lights” then hits a low with the “It’s Boring / You Can Live Anywhere You Want” duo. I can get past the fact that these two songs have mysteriously been lumped together, and I can also deal with the repeated 80s pop that, let’s face it, has pretty much been exhausted by the rest of the album, but the lyrical mundanity of this song is criminal. I could have accepted the repeated cry of “It’s boring” for a couple of reasons; I agreed with them, and I assumed it to be some vague attempt to impress the listener by demonstrating a sound appreciation of irony. However, the fact that “You Can Live Anywhere You Want” continues with the opus of “hell, we’ve got a whole album to go, we only need about 6 words per song to get our message across” would seem to indicate that it is not irony that’s evident, more a deflating lack of ideas. The album is saved by the two following songs, “Psychic City” and “Summer Song”, which have both deservedly garnered much praise from critics recently. However, they continue to highlight the record’s lack of ambition – “Psychic City” repeats Evans’ too-cool-to-bother-trying (and subsequently fail) lyrical approach and “Summer Song”, although it may sound delightfully reminiscent of a better decade as a single, seems predictable and repeated on the album.
[audio=http://pmatunes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/05-psychic-city.mp3,YACHT - Psychic City]
I genuinely dislike criticising albums, and it’s made even harder by the fact that the instrumentation and production of the album is almost infallible and could have been put to much better use if it was coupled with a worthy lyricist. Furthermore, you have to applaud Yacht for their bravery to attempt to stretch out one concept over an entire album, and their artistic integrity that led them to canceling all their SXSW shows in favor of meeting fans one on one. There’s no doubt that both Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans possess a great amount of artistic ability, it’s just that “See Mystery Lights” is perhaps a case of a bit too much bravery and artistic integrity, and not enough focus on “the music”.
When reading reviews of White Denim’s recent LP “Fits”, one reviewer pointed out that they had done exceptionally well to be able to cram four different ideas into each song. “See Mystery Lights” is pretty much the antithesis of this, and it drags out one concept and song style over an entire album, with limited success. And when comparisons with LCD Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean are so accurate… well; why wouldn’t you just buy one of their albums?
However, it’s not a case of a sunken Yacht; it’s just coasting along at its own very particular speed, determined to do everything on its own terms, irrespective of popular opinion. This strength, without a doubt, is to be applauded, but it is not necessarily the best way to make a pop album. Hopefully many of you will enjoy the eccentric amblings of Yacht’s “See Mystery Lights”, but this reviewer would rather swim.
To enter to win a copy of Yacht’s See Mystery Lights on vinyl or CD formats (a total of two winners)., leave a comment with your thoughts on the tracks you’ve just sampled, Yacht, or (if you’ve listened to it) the album. Make sure you leave your name/email address in the provided fields! Entries will be accepted until July 20th
Phil Gwyn is a guest-blogger here at PMA. Read his other thoughts on music at his blog, Not Many Experts
by on July 13, 2009 ‡ 1 reaction
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Serieusly underrated.
Psychic City is the jam of the summer!
Brah!!! the Bass rift 1:45 into “Ring the Bell” is cosmic.
3 Solid classic summery jams.
Organic Autotune
Dont get me started on “Psychic City”
One of the greatest lines in music this year ” Where you been Darling/ we’ve been holding this moment for you”— Proper!!!!
Album is a push. 3 Singles are top.
I’m inclined to agree with the review. I had such high hopes for this album after all the hype, but it wasn’t long before I was wondering what the big deal was all about. The music in all of these tracks is great, but the lyrics just sound like they were an afterthought. It makes me wish some of the songs were instrumental. I might not give it as low as a 51 but certainly no more than 60 or 65.
yeeah i agree w/review too. most of these yaught songs have me keen for the first minute before I drift off completely, then forget they’re playing, only to reawake with la roux firing 2000 volts of electricity through my tender ears (in a good way)
complaining about yacht’s lyrics is like complaining about leonard cohen’s guitar playing… this album is about the production. and the production on the album is adept and unique.
you know a review is going to be false and poorly written when it starts off trying to conjure up a collective experience of listening to the ting tings.
i agree with the reviewer too, this album does have some good beats, but the vocals and the lyrics keep it from going to the next level. it seems as if yacht is trying for more substance, but it’s not genuine so doesn’t work, if that makes sense. at the same time, they’re not quite talented enough to make something catchy and fun enough to widely catch on. so almost yacht….almost.
you couldn’t have missed the mark more on this– It’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want is a fantastic turning point on the album. overall the great tracks on this outweigh the sleepers 2-to-1.
The three good songs I’ve heard sound like reason enough to enjoy a free copy. Even if the rest of them suck, it’d be like getting a nice EP with some extra tracks that may or may not grow on me.
I have only heard three YACHT songs, and by those they seem quite impressive. Of course they’re the Psychic City, It’s Boring/You Can Do Anything You Want, and Summer Song. They sound poppy enough to play driving around having an interesting summer. Nothing too dramatic or crazy but just light and fun. it’s entertaining and that’s a good to listen to sometimes.
This is one of my least favorite sites ever. I am only on it because I searched for a review of this album. White Denim is trash, just like this review. Shakira is the most dynamic performer of our generations? Give me a break. There is no way one person can like all these indie bands and all this pop garbage. You are whats wrong with music. Indie music should be for people that care about music and not the next big thing. All my little words online had the best review of this album. Stating simple that it made him want to go to a record store again. You just compare it to some trash pop artist or over hyped, gone in the blink of an eye band. Give me a break only thing right in this review is how good LCD soundsystem is. I dare you to post this comment.
This site “may seem pretty insane to those still stuck in a world where pop and indie are separated by propped-up dividers. Pity them.” Know who said that? Pitchfork, the purveyors of all things “indie”.
I usually don’t respond to dimwitted comments like this one, but I’ll make an exception for this level of low-blow fuckery.
I’m not sure if you’re angry because we gave this album an”average” rating or because I have the audacity to post The Dodos and Shakira on the same homepage. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? Either way I’m going to tell you to go fuck yourself.
Luis, you are awesome. This is the most honest review I have read about this album. I looked these guys up after reading all the hype and wondering why they were getting hype when they really suck. sdf, you’re an idiot. Yacht plays no instruments, sing to backing tracks, and heavily produce their vocals so they don’t sound awful (but still do.)…are they ashlee simpson or an indie band? shakira may not be indie, but at least she can sing and dance, which is way more than i can say these guys. and just like ashlee simpson, i don’t think they would be getting any hype if they didn’t have the money to buy themselves a good publicist. all i can say is, if this really is the current state of indie, where lame bands like fall out boy (who can at least play instruments and sing) have more talent than so called indie bands, then this is really depressing.
man.
i was sorta excited for this album, since i loved summer song when i heard it, a while back, but, shit, i’m in love with a ripper is abysmal. didn’t make it even halfway through. the statement that it’s like a bad AC lyric is so … sadly fitting.
well.
hope they do better next time round.
Hello Phil Gwyn,
Thank you for your participation. We would like to correct a small grammatical error. The spelling is YACHT, not Yacht. YACHT is written with full capitalization. This is a very small, but important detail. The word “yacht” out of our capitalized context can refer to commodity fetishism and an advanced capitalist culture that YACHT has prided itself in avoiding since its conception.
It is worrying that you find aspects of the record damaging and we can’t help but conclude your expectations of a “pop-album” likely clouded your experience. That is unfortunate, but perhaps not entirely uncommon due to the affiliation YACHT has with DFA. While not an entirely flattering review of the music, we appreciate the amount of time you spent with the album and respect your opinion, even if we do not agree.
We are surprised that on your own blog you refer to the review as “regrettably scathing”. We find nothing especially scathing nor regrettable about the article and we encourage you to consider embracing a change in your mindset that does not cause regret.
We especially enjoyed your unique observation about the limited number of words in each song. You were exactly right. The original album YACHT submitted to DFA was only eight and a half minutes and consisted of just eight songs. DFA was unwilling to release that record and so it was expanded into something more palatable.
Your dedication to your craft is admirable, and if you’d like to discuss any of these matters further, please email us directly at trust@teamyacht.com.
Remain In Light,
The YACHT Trust
Scientologists <3 YACHT!
Don’t wish to be too scathing but it is a terrible review, 5 light bulbs then proceeded by this:
“an exceptionally impressive artistic statement and further proof of the genius of James Murphy’s DFA”.
???
It got a 51, and per our rating scale, that means:
“50-54 — Above Average. It’s more good than bad.”
And your quote is out of context… ???
your assuming that 50% of all reviews are above or below 5 lightbulbs!
that is plain stupid, if it was a maths exam then yes but not an album review!
I recently had the awesome pleasure of seeing them live at Wrongbar in Toronto. What an wicked show! Jona’s got the sweetest dance moves i’ve ever seen! Love the suits too, boys!