A woozy synth line underpins one of Longstreth’s gentlest vocal performances to date, a melody line I find myself singing in all sorts of inopportune places. Roughly halfway through, the beat breaks, Longstreth half-raps a little pre-chorus pep talk, and the song explodes in sound and vision. I don’t quite understand what Longstreth is going for with the song’s whale-plea mantra, but when it sounds like this— so gigantic, so effortless, so unbelievably catchy— I could really give a fuck. It’s pure bliss, tension that results in glorious release.
— From Pitchfork’s review of my current favorite album of 2009, Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca. I agree with essentially every overstated, overwrought sentence in the review, and am even OK with the way it’s written. You should probably hear this album.
