Album Review: Yellowbirds – The Color
Rating: 7.7/10
If you’ve gotten lost in all of the pop that seems to creep into the indie world like weeds disallowing the true indie artists to rise, its time you brush it aside. Yellowbirds is Sam Cohen and Sam Cohen is the mind behind Yellowbirds. In fact, he’s the only mind behind his latest album composition as he embarked on his solo project after his previous outfit, Apollo Sunshine, disbanded after putting out three albums throughout the past decade. Prior to his work with Apollo Sunshine, Cohen graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston and developed his sound with three friends who attended with him. Now, after three albums with Apollo Sunshine (the last LP released in 2008), Cohen relocated to Brooklyn to create his first solo album The Color.
The Color in general could be described as something close to the jangles of Delta Spirit with an aftershock of post 60s-pop. Cohen’s vocals deeply imbue each track with his unwavering vocals, as if his voice alone set his course and left a big wake in the direction he’s decided to go with this album. Songs such as “Beneath The Reach of Light” naturally breathe the lyrics, which come off as some sort of tale from the South as you hear “bloodhounds are barking now”. Cohen’s sporadic bursts of guitar solos don’t disappoint here either. In fact, the catchiest guitar licks laid down on this track absolutely boil over as Cohen unleashes his talents here. It’s most likely safe to say that Cohen prides his work with the guitar the most and he pairs it naturally and casually. This, of course, accounts for my favorite track on the album.
Other songs such as “The Honest Ocean” provide the experimental side, yet leave the door wide as to which direction the album could take next. Just as the opener, “The Rest of My Life”, manages to bring the feeling of a different era to the album, “Pulaski Bridge” also showcase his experimentation with different keyboards as a bit of a retro feel is blanketed over the track. “Rings In the Trees” is another sweeping track which harmonizes as Yellowbirds do so well and brings a more subtle side to the band. It’s clear that either direction Cohen decides to go from track to track, the entire album remains accessible.
While innovation becomes the key to success for artists, new sounds, different jingles and developing a band’s sound to keep up with their fans can turn into a trying task. While innovation seems like a module of the past, with synths and electronica leading the way in the music industry, glitzy guitar-work laid down on some heavy tracks does not get overlooked in our modern music industry. In fact, more than ever, music listeners yearn for something different yet still connected to their old musings. In that respect, Yellowbirds seem to melt both old and new along with blends of sounds not yet dug up in recent times. Yellowbirds falls into quite a likeable territory as it touches on the Fleet Foxes of our day with the subtle and spacey songs, yet captures indie rock at its best with a solid foundation of drums and guitar for the laid back ear. Cohen’s first solo album The Color is an absolute must-buy and lays the path for a blossoming career for Yellowbirds.
The Color was released on 2/15/11.
MP3: Yellowbirds – The Honest Ocean (buy)
You can preview or buy The Color by Yellowbirds on iTunes right here.
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[...] year – also received favorable reviews from Pitchfork, Pop Matters, Relix, Bass Player and others, but don’t take their word for it… hear for yourself: the entire album streams at [...]
[...] by Brendan on May 19, 2011 – 10:00 amNo Comment TweetShare If you read our review of Yellowbirds’ album The Color, you’ll find that we feel pretty adamant about this [...]
In the paragraph beneath Sam’s picture and the sentence beside the iTunes link you state that his album is called No Color when the rest of the review states (correctly) that the album is called The Color. On a sidenote, people who bought the album entitled No Color would not be disappointed since it is a very good album, albeit a Dodos album.
Fixed… thanks for the catch! Turns out I’ve been more mixed up with the Dodo’s album than I thought. We’ll actually have that review up soon too believe it or not.