If you're a hardcore fan of David Longstreth's musical outlet Dirty Projectors, you might not be impressed with this album. It's good but it's what you'd call "too big of a step" for this band. Now, if you remember their previous release Rise Above, it had noisy, insane pop songs that still had a certain catchiness to them. That doesn't really happen on their new album Bitte Orca.
One thing that's really good about this album is technicality. Most of the riffs on this can't be mastered by even your average 17 year old Metallica fanboy. But Dirty Projectors have always been that way. The opening track "Cannibal Resource" is definitely a great opener for the album. It's catchy, technical and fractured perfectly. Same thing goes for the second track "Temecula Sunrise". It starts off folky and stripped down to just acoustic guitar and vocals and it grows from there quickly. The first two tracks are really what gets you interested in the album but the songs begin to lose effort and you might lose interest quickly. I'm not saying the songs are uninteresting and boring, I'm just saying they're not as eye-opening as the beginning tracks. But of course, there are some great songs still in that batch.
"Stillness Is The Move" is awesome. David Longstreth gets on my nerves sometimes and hearing him on every track gets a little irritating. This track is great because it's just the two girls singing and you have a better opportunity hearing their amazing vocal ranges along with more technical yet poppy guitar playing. The following track "Two Doves" also has only the girls singing on it. Well, one girl. Longstreth comes back on "Useful Chamber" which still has the same thing going on that they've been doing since the beginning of the album. The final tracks are the same, not their sound, the composition and style of it.
Overall, really good album. I'd recommend it to a first time listener of Dirty Projectors and maybe an older fan. I forgot to mention, there are some really spastic and noisy parts to the album; just not how "spastic" meant on Rise Above.
Totally agree with this sentiment
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