Yeasayer / Fragrant World

Yeasayer
Fragrant World
(Mute)
***
Where does off kilter electronic music sit in 2012? We've got Arctic Monkeys playing in front of six billion people and The Black Keys becoming one of the biggest bands on Earth. This is always the issue for bands that take a very specific genre and then aim it towards a broad audience, the key grass roots factions always end up moving to something new at some point, leaving said band hoping they've made it massive or in a bit of a conundrum. Fickle is the crowd. Yeasayer are a good case in point; three years ago when people still remembered who Phoenix were the bleepy synths, tribal drums and R'n'B-esque vocals would've been an all fire winner. Now it seems... a little out of date.

Trying to ignore the context, there's some actually decent stuff here. Lead single Henrietta bounces along on a dub beat and aquatic keys. Devil And The Deed meanwhile is like an acid take on Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The answer to the initial question seems to be, not really anywhere. Fragrant World, for all its alt-pop good bits, doesn't have the depth or warmth that many of the current indie groups have, and that just leaves it a little cold.
Webbs Petherton