On Discovering Discovery by HMX
In the late summer of 2003, when I had the pleasure of hearing The Postal Service being played in a Biloxi Hot Topic, I must admit that I was smitten. Being a fan of 80s synthpop bands such as The Petshop Boys and Depeche Mode, I immediately latched on to this new band and was even treated to a delightful tale as to how they came to name the band. It has now been 6 years since that faithful trip and I have remained faithful to the Postal Service, but with no new album in site, I have had to begin looking for new sources of similar sound to fill the gaping hole left by Ben and Jimmy.Being somewhat stuck in the past, musically, I have not paid particular attention to much of the new music coming out in the last many years. If there are synths driving the beat, it is typically more pop- or dance-related than what I am looking for. Case-in-point: Lady Gaga and the music I now constantly hear any time my dial leaves NPR. It is catchy, it is extremely commercial – and can even be said to have some musical merit – but it just isn’t my cup of tea. I had all but given up; begun to accept the fact that Gibbard was trapped by DCfC – who I can’t listen too – and Tamborello left fly solo for the rest of eternity. That is when Blythe stepped in to bring to my attention a side project by Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend.
A few months back Blythe geeked out over this free track, by the two aforementioned bans, by the name of Orange Shirt. I didn’t pay attention at the time because I am a creature of habit and I had heard of Vampire Weekend and thought that any collaboration they did with another band(Ra Ra Riot being unknown to me at the time) would be more of the same indie type rock that I wasn’t in the mood for. I was very wrong in my assumption and quite ashamed of myself for having brushed of the collaboration so callously.
The Discovery LP is thirty minutes of listening pleasure, filling a void in my music library that has remained mostly baron due to my own listening habits. If I had to critique anything on the album, it would be the fact that it is only 30 minutes long(29:55 to be exact). It starts off with Orange Shirt, a catchy tune that is fun and upbeat in the same way as the Postal Service with delightfully somber lyrics that are easy to miss given the driving, and sometimes ethereal, beats. The mood is continued with Osaka Loop Line, a track that is quickly becoming a favorite bested only by their cover of I Want You Back and Carby.
Discovery has a more robotic sound than the typically clear crooning of Ben Gibbard, but unlike many pop and R&B acts –Kanye?– the sound is intentional and not the by product of software and/or hardware trying to keep a tone-deaf musician in tune. The vocals are shared between Wes Miles(Ra Ra Riot) and Rostam Batmanglij(Vampire Weekend) with an occasional guest appearance. This is something that I would like to see more of in a new Postal Service album, should it ever come out, as the harmonies and arrangements are refreshing treat in an era that I feel is being defined by bland vocals, uninspired lyrics and autotuners.
Knowing that Vampire Weekend is solidly in the rock realm, I did a bit of research into Ra Ra Riot to see if their music made heavy use of synths. I was more than a bit shocked and a little pleased when I found the answer to be know. If you are a fan of either Ra Ra Riot or Vampire Weekend and purchase Discovery expecting to get more of the same, I warn you that you will be let down as their is nary a sound, other than the vocals, that wasn’t generated by some cold, unfeeling, hunk of machinery. For that matter, there are only a few tracks in which the vocals haven’t seen treatment by a vocoder or other digital effects processing of some sort. This is not a collaboration like Temple of the Dog where you get more of the same, only with increased artistic talent and vision. Discovery is a whole new entity, one that I hope doesn’t follow the same course as Postal Service, another collaboration project in the same vein.
Wes and Rostam clearly enjoyed making this album and had a great deal of fun in the process. It is evident in the music, the vocals and the lyrics and comes through in tracks such as I Wanna be Your Boyfriend, Swing Tree and It’s Not My Fault(It’s My Fault), the latter of which sounds like it could almost fit in beautifully on a Fischerspooner album. The CD is worth a purchase if you enjoy synth-driven music and once again, the only complaint I have is that the album is too short, frustratingly short and I’ve yet to figure out how to enable repeat on my iPod Touch.
