This is someone's idea of a joke right?

What do you mean? Haven't listened yet.

Everyone hear the Raveonettes cover of "I Wanna Be Adored" from last year? Ish is awesome.

i did not know about this

It sounds like 80's hair metal with techno beats.

it's pathetic. fuck Boris, they're laughable at this point.

whaaat? PLEASE POST!

It is, but I'll wait to hear the other 2 albums they have coming out before I write them off.

whaaat? PLEASE POST!

It is, but I'll wait to hear the other 2 albums they have coming out before I write them off.

Fleet Foxes 128 leak if anyone's interested.

I've been looking for it, and coming up empty. Where did you find it?

Yellowbirds is the solo project of Sam Cohen, who for the past decade has been a member of Apollo Sunshine, a Boston-born, now-scattered band that's produced three great albums of willfully chaotic and eclectic indie rock. Their story has been one of gradual maturation: starting out with a rather simple binary-- power-pop collides head-on with barely controlled outbursts of noisy jamming-- and then refining it to the point where their last album, 2008's Shall Noise Upon, felt like a work of real vision even as it branched out in 10 different directions at once.

Cohen's solo work is a little more focused stylistically. There aren't any competing personalities here, and that leads him to a more conventional but still satisfying style that colors sweepingly melodic rock with a country tinge. Some of Apollo Sunshine's chaos pops up in subtle ways, such as the wobbly carnival keyboards that knock "Pulaski Bridge" slightly off-center-- these elements also contribute to the album's homespun feel. It's high-fidelity stuff, but it still has an endearing raggedness that makes it feel as though Cohen invited you into his living room. Cohen's self-harmonization recalls the organic, warm imprecision of the Band, and the abundance of fuzzy organ and synth in the back of the mix adds an air of experimentation that undercuts the more straight-ahead songwriting.

Cohen does well when he embraces the cosmic country vibe that colors much of the album. "Beneath the Reach of Light" features some of his best self-harmonizing, gorgeous pedal steel playing, and a climactic mid-section that pits his steel against his soaring, distorted guitar-- it's like a highly refined version of Apollo Sunshine's pop/noise approach that more directly serves the songwriting. On the title track, he sings at the bottom of his register and reminds me a bit of Lee Hazlewood, and the song lives at roughly the same stylistic intersection as Hazlewood's music.

The Color is ultimately the sound of Cohen exploring what he can do on his own, layering and trying different juxtapositions of instruments and tones while writing some of his most straightforwardly accessible songs yet. His long-time band's flair for experimentation in a pop context is even more thoroughly integrated here-- see the way the main hook of "The Honest Ocean" is a bizarrely queasy melody played simultaneously on a guitar and a Moog. It's a good album that manages to construct a unique world in just a half hour, and I get the sense that making it was a learning experience for Cohen. It will be interesting to see what he does with the lessons in the future.

Fleet Foxes 128 leak if anyone's interested.