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Though five full albums into their career, it seems like Yellow Ostrich are still a bit under the radar, or perhaps just my radar. Regardless of their notoriety, the band is currently a four-piece outfit that hails from Brooklyn, of all places. What started as the solo project of lead vocalist and guitarist, Alex Schaaf, has blossomed into the group effort that produces guitar focal indie rock, which is quite clearly found on Cosmos.
The main difference on Cosmos, oddly enough, is that the balance between electronic elements and electric guitar have been switched for the most part from what we came to know on earlier efforts such as on the Ghost EP. Heavy guitar is the central element, and even on the opening track, which isn’t the most enticing number that Yellow Ostrich have put out, you can see this shift. “Terrors” seems simplistic for the group, relying on the hardness of the guitar sound to carry the number. Though different, it provides listeners with the notion that a different kind of sound can be expected, even if it isn’t exactly what the first song entails.
And if the opening track is a lacking in the intricacy that this ban has thus established, then “Neon Fists,” directly after, offers a rebuttal to everything that I just described in the last paragraph. Suddenly the band is equal parts guitar, equal parts electronic aspects. These two sounds seem to play off each other, each swirling around the other until they have layered to create a cosmic soundscape for Schaaf’s high-pitched nasal vocals to sit lightly on top, bouncing around. Another track that seems to flip around the notion of guitar heavy centricity at first is “How Do You Do It,” which picks up with a drum machine beat and slight clicks and pops. Schaaf comes in with heavyset lyrics, contemplating the nature of the normalcy of day-to-day life. He poses us the question with some power chords of guitar. Here is juxtaposition that I wish was more prevalent on Cosmos: the detailed lyrics and the balance between delicate and harsh seem to blend effortlessly, giving this track real traction and intrigue.
Though there are some good tracks to this album, all in all it seems that it is lacking in the grand vastness that the title might imply. I find myself enjoying a fair amount of numbers, but missing something overall. You might disagree with this sentiment—and at 34 minutes in length, you can see for yourself. Have a listen.
We all need a little pick me up, and for many of us, that’s best when it comes to moving music. Some people look for a hard edge to get out their pent-up aggression, but others, like myself, look for the perfect pop song to really bring my spirits up to par. This new track from Little Children has really done its job since it came out a few days ago; I’m particularly fond of the raspy quality in the vocals. It’s no surprise that this is a collective from Sweden as the style fits the soft pop that’s been popularized in the country since we were able to invade their musical landscape. You can find the song on the band’s Traveling Through Darkness EP, which comes out on June 2nd.
