Dirty Projectors – ‘Swing Lo Magellan’

DIRTY PROJECTORS
Swing Lo Magellan

Domino, 2012

• FAVORITES:

  “Impregnable Question,” “Dance For You.” “Gun Has No Trigger”

• FLAVORS:

  Chocolate ice-cream, wicker bike baskets, Cheratussin

RATING:

TRACK LIST:

1. Offspring Are Blank

2. About to Die

3. Gun Has No Trigger

4. Swing Lo Magellan

5. Just From Chevron

6. Dance For You

7. Maybe That Was It

8. Impregnable Question

9. See What She Seeing

10. The Socialites

11. Unto Caesar

12. Irresponsible Tune

Someone please explain to me how Swing Lo Magellan has just five musicians on it. I suppose the fact that Dirty Projectors mainstay Dave Longstreth has the creative stamina of a baker’s-dozen-amount of normal people has something to do with it. The normal-dozen-track album spills over with ambrosial genius, making it perhaps the most impressive offering from the group to date.

The group’s label, Domino, made a good call dropping “Gun Has No Trigger” as Magellan‘s first cut to the weird pop-ravenous masses. Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle toss a load of “ooh”s into a steaming cauldron to make a pink cloudy border (see: Saved by the Bell dream sequence). It’s a spooky nightmare in which the dreamer is rendered helpless. I really appreciate the simplicity of the video paired with the track, letting the mystery sink to a darker, creepier place if the listener lets it (which is advised).

A welcome clash comes when the title track fires up after “Gun” with velvety strums. The freezer-burnt Creamsicle sounds continue to soften through “Just From Chevron” into the hand-percussion-heavy hunt “Dance For You.” Is it just me, or are bands more and more acknowledging the omnipresent uncertainty cloaking at least everyone I’ve spoken to recently? Or is it the moon? Or is it the (prescribed) cough syrup I sipped before sitting down to write this? Either way, I feel like I’m picking up what Longstreth’s laying down here in “Dance” with the chorus, “There is an answer/I haven’t found it/But I will keep dancing ’til I do.”

“Impregnable Question” trembles with a sweet truth and delicate ivory backbone. It reflects on a long-term relationship, concluding on a happy “Hey, let’s keep doing this“ note. I just beg beg beg that this never gets overplayed to Edward Sharpe “Home” nauseating heights. I don’t know how much not-prescribed cough syrup I’d have to suck down to drown out the image of “You’re my love and I want you in my life” shellacked onto some piece of home furniture/decor and featured on Pinterest. Just, please. Don’t let this happen, internet.

Magellan