Reviews (page 5 of 9)
weird and quirky… but not necessarily in a bad way. i much prefer the few songs with the female singer than with the male singer.
I don’t like slow sad bisexual music
Bletch. This hipster garbage sucks. Eeech.
This was too indie for my tastes. I wanted to like it but ultimately found it aggravating to listen to.
Seemingly nonsensical lyrics with okish music
meh
At times I started to kinda like it but then the singer started to annoy me again. I was gonna give it a second d listen but decided against it. 2 stars
I have no idea what to think if this(It's like a Pop version of "Yeezus", but I won't insult it that much). It was released right after I graduated from high school, and somehow, I missed this one. I guess it's not good, or bad; it's"Bitter Orca", and I'll just leave it at that. Favorite Track: "Stillness Is The Move".
I think my three stars can't capture quite how interesting this record is. My favourite aspects of this record bring to mind the Animal Collective album released in the same year. There's a lot more to it than that though, they are far more fragmented, a lot more abstract, happy to hinge a whole songs off of a series of non-sequiturs. A patchwork album of patchwork songs. Its fascinating. I'm just not sure my brain can make it completely work for me.
Interesting. I didn’t mind listening to it once, it can’t see ever revisiting it.
Interesting percussion and time signatures aside, this appears neither accessible nor interestingly avant guard.
I really wanted to like this one. And some parts I did. But that was the problem- it was only in parts. I don't think there was one song I liked all the way through; some started good and went bad, some started rough and improved, and others oscillated between the two. Anything else was in the "OK" territory of neither good nor bad. To me, a lot of it felt disjointed. Like the guitar was playing one song and the percussion another, and they didn't really match up to make something cohesive. Or the vocals were in one space and the music was in another. It was like they had a ton of ideas for songs when writing the album, but instead of ditching the worst ones, they kept them all (and combined them) anyway. I'm guessing that's what they were going for, as it was definitely pervasive and was the sound of the album. If so, I'd say they accomplished their goal. I'll give them credit for that. I'll say I was underwhelmed, but not turned off. I appreciated it more than some of the super bland stuff that I've gotten on here, as they tried to do something different. It was definitely interesting. But still, I can't say it was good. Overall: 2.5/5
3/10 MARTHA!!! The raccoons are in the garage again playing the rock music. stop feeding them the butter!!! 5-13-2025
It was different, I was finding it alright until the last few songs which were obnoxious and repetitive. Favorite song was Stillness is the Move. 4/10
Eh
"Cannibal Resource" is a good song. I like the harmonies from the ladies. He could've said 'the arbitrary life' a few less times. "Temecula Sunrise" feels like a very similar song, with some different guitar parts here and there. "The Bride" vocals for the first minute sound exactly like Moses Sumney on Aromanticism. Moses really ate this man's lunch. This is my favorite song so far. "Two Doves" is a nice change of pace. I enjoy the strings, and the vocals are very pleasant. I like the back half of "Remade Horizon" a lot, lots of fun instrumentals going on there. I'd probably listen to this again. 7/10
Both an interesting album with a lot of enjoyable arrangements. Yet, also a somewhat forgettable album, even after two listen throughs. However, the enjoyable parts are enough for me to push it from a 3 to a 4.
Absolute nightmare. I couldn’t tell if they were truly terrible or if they meant to sound like that on purpose. Offbeat and dissonant over the top!
Again completely unexpected, but I grew to like it. It was both like the calm and the storm.
-very interesting music… super anachronistic early Obama administration indie sound -I first became aware of Dirty Projectors through their collab with Björk and a YouTuber I liked mentioning them. I thought this was really cool… some songs were better than others but overall it had a great sound. Stillness Is The Move is sooo good I will be playing it on repeat -Favorites are Cannibal Resource, Stillness Is The Move, and Two Doves
I gave this a couple of listens and it didn't make a huge impression on me. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely erratic, with several different styles that sort of alternated... not really mashed together so much as happening in sequence one after another. This seems like a very niche pick for the 1001.
1.77
It’s ok.
Nice enough. But not a stand out.
Who is giving out 5’s here? Please stop! For god’s sake, let’s get this rating below 2 where it belongs!
Quirky, too arty for me. A few more nice tunes might help.
Ok. Some tracks were pretty good, but nothing that really jumped out at me. I can see this being “Best Album of the June 2009” but I don’t think it’s stood the test of time. Can’t rate it higher than “Low” by DB though, because in retrospect that album was presaging this style of music 20 years earlier.
A perfectly tolerable listen but not a memorable track or emotion in sight. A bit too aware of it's own "quirkiness" to pakc any kind of punch for me. I think I would have loved this in 2009 but unfortunately I heard it in 2025.
Sounds totally 2009 and still different from 2009 at the same time. I last dipped my toes in their music a few years back (because frontman Dave Longstreth’s brother Jake co-hosts the digital radio show Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig and I was having an extremely strong Vampire Weekend phase) but still not entirely sure what I think of it. The bits I like best do remind me a lot of Vampire Weekend but there’s definitely a real uniqueness to their sound too. Not something I find myself particularly excited by though but again I’m not sure why. Favourite tracks are The Bride and No Intention. (3.5 stars)
They say good art should make you feel something. If that’s true this is a masterpiece, I hate this album with every fibre of my being. It is so inoffensive and benign that it is possibly the worst body of work I’ve encountered. I hate the fact that I had to listen to this middle of the road, pseudo indie bollocks for 45 minutes. Regardless of genre and content, I can usually find something I like in any of these albums, this is the first that has given me absolutely nothing to cling on to. I don’t know how it ended up on this list and I hope I never encounter anything from them ever again.
Unsure how I missed this back in 2009 as it’s well up ny street and very in keeping with the indie I was loving at that time. Sad to see such low ratings for what i thought was an interesting and quite lovely record.
Creative and surprising
This was so lovely I remember listening to two doves years ago idk where I heard it but I completely forgot about it until today!!! Beautiful
Not that interesting. Someone should have told him that the weird female vocals needed to go where dreams go to die.
- I read some of the other reviews and, I have to say, the folks dismissing this as "hipster bullshit" are way off base. I also don't really hear Captain Beefheart; there's not nearly enough dissonance and cacophony. The person who cited Steve Howe / Yes, however, nailed it. Longstreth is clearly aping Mr. Howe's stylings and some of his passages. The thing is, he's just not as good as Steve Howe. That's fine; not too many people are that good and aspiring to Yes quality creative output is nothing to scoff at. I think the bigger issue is Dirty Projectors, at least on this record, try to do too much within the same song just a little too often. I once had an instructor tell me "you don't have to use every trick in your bag of tricks every time" .... while listening to this record I was reminded of this advice. Remember, kids; self-editing is a good thing. Having ranted this out of my system, I can say that I still enjoyed the record. It wasn't something I could immediately categorize. That too, is a good thing and usually means we should pay attention to the thing that we're having trouble filing away. Art is, after all, fundamentally the search for the unknown. It's not a perfect record so, 4 stars.
There’s some interesting ideas but none of it meshes well at any point and couldn’t wait for it to end.
Like another reviewer, my usual objectivity failed me utterly, here. I (possibly inexplicably) hated it, and couldn't wait for it to end. I couldn't enjoy a single guitar twiddle or interesting harmony, because everything managed to combine to make something completely infuriating. I'm reasonably open, but my brain was quite certain in diagnosing that notes and sounds should NOT go in this order. I hope I never hear it again.
1. Cannibal Resource - 8/10 2. Temecula Sunrise - 6.5/10 3. The Bride - 7/10 4. Stillness Is the Move - 7.8/10 5. Two Doves - 8/10 6. Useful Chamber - 5/10 7. No Intention - 5/10 8. Remade Horizon - 5.5/10 9. Fluorescent Half Dome - 7.5/10 6/10
This is the sound of a Wes Anderson movie with all the fun bits edited out. (Still gets a 2 for at least enjoying itself, Si.)
I fucking love this, and I totally understand why you might not. The reviewer who commented "Captain Beefheart pop" is absolutely correct, but not in the derogatory way they probably meant. I think David Longstreth is a kind of technical genius, a worthy heir of weird complex '80s pop (Talking Heads, Scritti Politti..?), writing songs that look good on paper and striving to make them sound good on record. Here, "Temecula Sunrise" is a great example; their best songs are characterized by pleasing guitar filigree, odd phrasings and exploding off-kilter choruses, all of which is right up my alley. Perhaps "Swing Lo Magellan" is better (certainly more accessible), give it a spin. I'm happy to discover they have a new album out just this month, ooh!
Never heard of them, like many others on this list. And it seems for a reason, as I could've continued my life perfectly without knowing this record.
3/5
1/5 Huh huh! Olipa kova työ kuunnella läpi. Omat aivot meinas oksentaa ekat kolme biisiä, kun kaikki oli ihan sattumanvaraista. Sitten tuli pari biisiä, joissa sentään joku perinteisempi rakenne. Ei silti riitä nostamaan kahden tähden limpuksi.
Vaikeaselkoinen levy, ja yritin joitakin pätkiä kuunnella useampaan kertaan. Mutta ei ihan kelvotonta kuitenkaan.
Kappaleet ovat jotenkin sekasortoisia. Kuin kaikki olisi koko ajan liikkeessä ja bändi hitusen epätahdissa. Kukaan jäsenistä ei oikein tiedä mitä tapahtuu. Enkä minäkään.
Olipahan kummallista. Rumpali yritti ja onnistuikin soittamaan väärään tahtiin. Kai tämä jotain taidetta on
Välillä ihan kivaa akustisen kanssa näppäilyä mutta muuten ei kyllä lähde sitten millään.
Nyt oli niin surkeaa settiä että en sano mittään.
shit from a butt
I'm starting to think this list is literally just rage bait.
It's that pretentious Indie guy in college who thinks he's too deep for anyone to understand.
Voices were ok, but the songs sounded like someone just threw together random words with no meaning.
It was meh nothing amazing it wasn’t groundbreaking
Parts sounded really good but the dudes voice is no bueno. Liked the female artists more. Overall sound was good but could’ve been a whole lot better. A lot better than I was expecting though, was expecting some sort of artsy prog rock, so this was a pleasant surprise.
meh. some was interesting, some was more noise, and the vocals were hit & miss (female much stronger than male). why was this on the list??
cool, definitely different and experimental, most of it sounds good
Not really for me
Enjoyed it & first time listen of this artist
Good
I've loved this album for years. Still one of my go-tos for the spring vibe. I dunno why but it's always been an album I tend to listen to around this time of year.
not my type of rock, this is indie swill
It reminds me of talking heads - and similar to them I feel I should like it more than I do. It also reminds me of 80s King Crimson, the flaming lips and Arcade Fire. It’s weirdness, but modern weirdness. Unfortunately, I don’t really like the lead singers voice. It feels more “wacky” than “interesting”. Maybe I just don’t like modern things! Might give it another try but I don’t feel compelled to listen to it.
Not for me….
This just works for me, much as something like The Fiery Furnaces does, with full acknowledgement that it's obscenely pretentious and naval-gazing. It's hard to deny the melodies here, particularly in Stillness is the Move, Useful Chamber and Cannibal Resource. Enjoyed it so much on this rediscovery that I put it on for a third time back-to-back-to-back.
Interesting use of different time signatures throughout the album. The use of voices is very hypnotic, kind of reminds me of Lorde. The music gives me hints of Yes, Rush and Zappa with some nice guitar work. Nice find.
I liked how chill it was!
I don't even know where to begin. It sounds experimental, yet well put together? Very indie, very melodic, but not for me.
Enjoyed this album. The way their voices balance each other is quite amazing.
Fun album good supports
Not a fan of this one, it’s not necessarily bad, just weird and I didn’t really enjoy it. I agree with the other reviews about it being needlessly offbeat and random notes and backing vocals thrown in for the sake of it, I actually like quite a few parts about this album: the acoustic guitar throughout is really nice, the strings in some parts as well and my favourite part is the transition from stillness is the move to two doves which the latter is definitely my favourite from here and the former is probably second. Other than that the rest of the songs I didn’t really like as it mostly consisted of drums which didn’t even feel like they were part of the songs and vocals mostly in falsetto for some reason repeating the name of the song a multitude of times with female backing vocals thrown in. Overall a 2 but a high 2 (4/10).
Fine enough. Had some ups and downs. Probably would have listened to this if I knew about it when it came out
Never heard of them and pretty sure I will forget about them before the end of the day. It's one where I'm just not sure why I needed to hear this before I die. It's hard to understand what the hell is going on and I actually fine all the vocals rather irritating...
1 stern
This was going to be a 4, but caught me on the wrong day where the angular and spiky songs hit wrong and annoyed me. Ultimately the instruments and vocals sounded so distinct from each other, rather than helping into a coherent sound.
This is really bad. It seems to have all of the trappings of awful corporate 00's era art-pop in the most grating way. The only way this would be worse is if it included stomp-clap-hey-ho vocals, which I am honestly expecting as I listen more.
Album 732 of 1001 Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (2009) Rating : 1.5 / 5 I typically like Indie rock but I don't know what they are trying to do here.
Легкая музыка, без каких либо эмоциональных пиков
As many people as possible should buy this album so that the "musicians" can afford music lessons.
Quite interesting, touches of pop and folk psychedelia, mixed up with Lo Fi indie experimentalism. Not sure this will make me a big fan but it was definitely worth a listen
This is a good album! I like the opening track "Cannibal Resource". They have a bit of a Sufjan Stevens feel. 3.6/5, so I'm going 3/5. Don't think a 4 is warranted.
This album spits in the face of standard song structure and I really liked it. Sections of songs just happen, but they sound good. The vocals are really great especially with use of background vocals that fill out the songs. Favorites were Temecula Sunrise, Stillness Is The Move, and Useful Chamber.
Don't know what this is seems to be all over the place. Jazzy noise
- kurzweilig und unterhaltend - kein Song hat für mich besonders herausgestochen, aber als gesamte Platte konnte man sich das schon gut mal geben - trotzdem nichts, was ich andauernd hören könnte, denke ich - 3/5
2.7
I prefer Tune-yards. Deradoorian's solo record was pretty good. (Exploding Flower Planet - I went back to it after and it's still good) I see this is from the Of Montreal school of trying to fit 5 different songs into one. Except in many of these tracks they're being played at the same time. I'm all for experimental music, it pushes music forward. Also, not all experiments are a success. Stillness is the Move was really good though. Just play tunes, dudes! You can get away with all sorts of experimentation if you hang it around a consistent melody. Useful Chamber is just irritating, please stop.
I can picture the type of person to enjoy this and it fills me with such a visceral, irrational hatred. Seething. I have issues. You can listen to this album by looking at the cover and the genre list. Just look at it. That's what it sounds like, and it's as bad as it sounds.
Boring Brooklyn hipster noise.
I don't mind some out there shit. I can get on board with some pretty funky stuff. I don't fucking like this very much though. What a chore. Like a high school band. Simple and trying to be clever. Don't come back. Two stars.
This feels artsy for the sake of it. I don't know what it's trying to say.
Art pop con cambios continuos de compás y, a ratos, muy disonante. Un álbum abstracto, experimental y, sí, súper pretencioso. Sin embargo, no entiendo las reseñas tan negativas que estoy leyendo por aquí. Parece que cualquier álbum experimental que no sea de un grupo súper conocido es rechazado de inmediato. Pero este álbum no es puro avant-garde, sino que mantiene algo de sensibilidad comercial. Se deja escuchar a la vez que mantiene un toque único y bastante interesante. Por ejemplo, en muchos temas hay hoquetus vocales que me han molado bastante. En general, parece bastante influenciado por la música medieval. No es un álbum que vaya a entrar en mi rotación habitual, pero me ha gustado.
Nothing sounds like the Dirty Projectors, and this is them at their peak.
I really enjoyed this album. I know Jeff has been a huge fan of this artist for years but they were never really on my radar. I love that they have a similar musical complexity to Vampire Weekend but without the preppy New England vibe. The songs all felt really vibrant and different from one another without sacrificing cohesiveness.
They have a unique sound and plenty of interesting ideas, but it rarely results in a memorable melody or hook.
Enjoyable!!
A decent indie rock album. Sounds fresh. Even the songs that didn't particularly interest me were kind of good. Lyrically just dreamy narratives about love and life. Liked the songs that had a burst of heaviness amid the general slow tempo of the album. Temicula Sunrise,The Bride and my favourite from the album Useful Chamber. Good vocal performances too. Not only lead, but the background vocal harmonies were also very gorgeous. Still many songs from the album failed to impress me. Maybe just not my taste. A 2.5 or 3.
Awful.
фу бля
Very different and odd. I liked it. I especially liked the use of voices as an additional instrument. Liked Songs Added: Cannibal Resource
Really interesting writing. Verging on self-indulgent at times but didn't tip fully into it.
Really liked this, can tell it's a new york type band but that didn't put me off too much!
Chat, am I old? This is a time capsule that reminds me of a time when hipsters were hipsters before hipsters were cool. I usually resent that sound these days (reminds me of my cringiest self), but this band is super talented which redeems the album a little. It’s got the crispy indie-pop sound from Vampire Weekend, bud sadly mixed with the annoying soulless vibe of Jacob Collier. I’ll never listen to anything on this again, but I guess I get why it’s on this list. SOFT 3 *** For the record I made a mistake scoring that doodooass Timeless album as a 3/5. For posterity, know I’d give it a 1/5. Still getting a feel of my rating system. Apologies for fucking up the stats. ***
This band has been highly recommended to me for years by a friend from college who was homeschooled and in private cello lessons since he was 3. The first four tracks didn’t do a lot for me on first listen but for whatever reason Two Doves was a turning point that I really enjoyed. It made me realize they’re capable of more than I was giving this album credit for. I let it run and loop back after that and really loved the first four tracks too. Maybe a real grower of an album, I will definitely be returning to it.
Never heard of them. Was too experimental for me. Felt like a combo of the worst parts of Kevin Parker and Bon Iver tasked to make something weird. This was unfortunate because I really liked the tones of the instruments and production. It just wasn't done in the best way. I liked the harmonies and the vocalists is definitely talented, but the tempo changes were too frequent for my taste. Useful Chamber was my favorite song followd by Two Doves. Strong 2. Only a strong 2 because of the ties to Rusko with Amber Coffman. That dude makes great wubs. Could make an argument questioning the existence of this album on the list. Definitely couldn't listen with Drake's grandmother.
I’d rather listen to vampire weekend. Album sounds great and the playing with time is cool along with the angular guitar riffs throughout, but this doesn’t really do it for me. Mr. Projector sure knows his way around a DAW (please teach me btw), but maybe having an outside producer would’ve helped them with creating a more cohesive project. There’s something here, but it feels more like noodling on a MacBook than anything else.
Ok, so, I have a bit of a tendency to be flippant in my reviews, so sue me. There's 1001 albums, 1078 if you include the ones removed in future book revisions, which you obviously do because this album is one of them. I'm not gonna write a book report for each one, I work 12 hours shifts suck me dry. However, man oh man do I love the Dirty Projectors. I discovered them through Swing Lo Magellan, an album I definitely own on vinyl, their follow up to this album, and this is just more experimental, complicated, noisy then that was. Amber Coffman and David Longstreth have fascinating voices and the compositions are so chaotic without being obnoxious. The structures of the songs are so visible, even if they look Escherian. I loved this album all the way through, with it's off time fuzz guitar, wails and random key changes it really is an absolute banger. 5 out of 5 bought this album on vinyl the instant I finished it.
didn't care for the opening track. sound kind of too busy, almost trying too hard to sound unique there with all the layering going on. 2nd track had a good acoustic guitar part in the beginning The Bride was alright and Stillness Is The Move had a unique sound, I liked the sound of the vocals. I didn't care for Useful Chamber at all and skipped it half way through overall this isn't for me I think, possibly a 2 today.
This album is bonkers. On a different day I might hate this album, but today it's hitting me just right. It's avant-indie-prog-pop-rock. There's some cool acoustic guitar work, especially in the early parts of the album. There are times where the electric guitars sound like a musique concrete collage of Steve Howe guitar parts. There are crazy vocal harmonies all over the place that, along with the angularity of some of the melodies and grooves, bring to mind a recontextualized Gentle Giant. Overall, the album felt like a less spastic and more pop-y The Mars Volta. 4 stars.
Unique, I’ll give you that.
Um not really my style.
Nonsense
This album and its predecessor, Rise Above, were in steady rotation for me back in 2009-2010. Their collaboration with Bjork on the next record, Mount Wittenberg Orca, was incredible too. Awesome band of creatives that at the time of this album shared a similar sound to bands like Grizzly Bear, Great Lake Swimmers, Blind Pilot and at times Vampire Weekend. This is a good reminder that I need to dive into to their more recent releases.
Ah, Andy hipped me to the folks. I work in AV, so I strongly dislike dirty projectors. I do like this band, though. I'm listening forward to hearing this again. Such an unorthodox and beautiful album. It's chaotic but digestible. I don't think there's another album like this, so I'll give them props for creating a unique piece of art here. I like the jazzy vocals and harmonies, and the offbeat music. The Bride was my favorite. 4.5
If David Byrne had a baby with Vespertine-era Björk. 3.5
I just couldn't get into this. A little too scattered and unstructured for me.
meh
I can't get the sense
i do have some nostalgia for this sorta sound but it wears down sorta quickly, which is how i feel about a number of this style's albums, idk if it's burnout from how much this sound was in indie pop at the time. i do like the crunchy percussion and splashy chords and the rhythmic density.
Temecula Sunrise feels like im on a bumpy road and I fall into potholes after getting some traction, I dont know how else to explain it, motion sickness set to music perhaps? Why is the Bride using the same cadence on a different key from Temecula Sunrise. ugh, this one is going to be painful, in theory I like this kind of music but somehow its pissing me off. The high note on Stillness Is The Move would move me more if it was done on a better song Two Doves is a nice break on the album Useful Chamber 5:25 Nah fuck this, I was between a 2 star or 1 but this moment gave me a headache
To be honest Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors is a bit of a mixed bag for me. While there are moments where the album shows some creative flair, overall it just doesn’t really hit the mark and leaves me a tad underwhelmed There’s no denying the ambition behind this record. The production is pretty interesting. layers of off-kilter melodies and inventive arrangements that, at times, feel like a breath of fresh air. Some tracks have a quirky charm, with unexpected twists and a sense of experimental brilliance that can really catch you off guard. The vocals, when they’re on point, add a unique character to the tunes, and there are bits where the instrumentation is downright impressive. However, for me, most of the album ends up feeling overly messy and a bit all over the place. The experimental nature of Bitte Orca is clearly there, but it often comes across as unfocused, making it hard to latch onto a consistent vibe. The lack of cohesion means that despite some decent ideas, the overall listening experience feels disjointed. I found myself drifting off and thinking, “This isn’t really doing it for me,” more times than not. It’s a shame because there are flashes of brilliance, but they’re buried beneath a load of convoluted arrangements that just don’t gel. In my perspective, Bitte Orca is an album that tries hard to be innovative, but it ultimately falls short of being truly engaging. While I can appreciate the effort and the occasional moment of creative genius, the overall experience left me rather lukewarm – a proper 2.7/5 stars. It’s one of those records that might work for some, but for me, it just didn’t manage to keep my interest for the long haul.
What a pleasant surprise. Expected a middling 00's indeh wankfest but received a gorgeous album of thoughtful sounds. I'm too tired to write up better words than these but it was thoroughly impressive and did not manage to make me ever feel off-put by its nature. 9/10
It sounds so much like the music they play at milenial burger places. Besides that it's pretty nice, not that for me but I can imagine being in the mood for it when having a moment in the inevitable situation in which I become a podcaster in brooklyn
7/10 This album is so aggressively 2009 I had to check if it had “BEST NEW MUSIC” by p4k and was like “yea” when I saw the 9.2 on the screen. Very nice album overall even if it didn’t go far enough in a lot of areas, it’s among the better “Avant-Pop” records of the late 2000s. This would hit the best if I had thick rimmed glasses, a flannel, timbs, and a handle bar mustache in a craft beer bar after voting for Obama.
A lot of sounds just for the sake of it. Beautiful harmonies with half melodies. It’s pretty but that’s it. 5.5/10
Really nice album, glad I across it
This was okay. A couple tracks caught my attention for being really odd.
Yeah im not remotely into this haha. i remember hearing the name now and giving them a try at some point in college, maybe even post? Just not for me at all. No other notes
Listened: 06/03/2025 Album no: 30 % rating: 43% Fave song: Not for me. Had its moments where it went a little Radiohead but yeah, turned it off half way though.
Unusual, original sound. I think that the more I listened, the less interested I became. I don't particularly like David Longstreth's vocals here. I do really like the album cover though; it's simple but I find it striking. I'm not sure I could have guessed how they were going to pronounce the words "Temecula Sunrise" in 20 guesses.
Musically accomplished, I'm sure, but without melodies and rhythm there are no real songs.
Interesting, but more obnoxious than anything. Most songs felt like a “look at me look how avante garde i am” and I didn’t really connect with any of them. I liked the production though and the complexity but meh
Quite enjoyed this. 7/10
81% Best: Cannibal Resource; Stillness Is The Move; Useful Chamber Must-Hear? Sure. Y’all are trippin’, this album is good.
little top heavy. I'm sure this would not make an updated list, but good nostalgia for an aging dork.
Good, weird, need to be in the right mood though.
This was one of my favorite albums in college and I still play it whenever I'm reminded of it. I've heard it countless times. Every grace note and off-kilter vocal inflection is etched into my memory. The music is full of wonderful details, and I love rediscovering all of them when I put this on. The music is so colorful. That's probably why it's stuck with me for 15+ years. Right from the opening notes of "Cannibal Resource," the effect on the guitar has a neon quality to my ears. And those bursts of back up vocals add splashes of color and feeling. It's gorgeous and vibrant music. "Temecula Sunrise" and "The Bride" could almost be Led Zeppelin songs. The mix of soft, pastoral acoustic guitar with hard rock drums feels like an update of Zeppelin in folk-rock mode. And I love how "The Bride" slowly builds up to a pretty heavy riff. "Stillness Is the Move" is a great song. Those colorful guitar tones are there again, but this time on a track that sounds like a 90s R&B jam. There's a strange, special combination of sounds on this song you can't find anywhere else. You just have to put the song on again to get this specific feeling. (By the way, if you like Amber Coffman's vocals on this album, I'm a big fan of her 2017 solo album "City of No Reply." Another great album.) "Useful Chamber" is epic. The release that hits when the music reaches the climax is so powerful. I guess a lot of this music could be described as prog-rock, but it's also very pop-minded and more playful than most prog-rock. A lot of that playfulness comes from frontman David Longstreth, whose vocals stretch in strange ways, like a more rubbery David Byrne. (I love the way he sings "Gaaaatoraaade" on "Temecula Sunrise.") Another example of that childlike playfulness comes on "Remade Horizon" at 2:35 with those chopped up, chirping vocals. Such a fun, wild, inventive album.
This band has been in my periphery for a bit but I've yet to listen to a full album so I'm excited to see this pop up on a Monday morning to get my week started. I love when indie is inventive, it's probably my favorite characteristic of the indie genre overall- that a new band can come out and there's less restrictions surrounding what defines the genre. It allows for a lot of style stretching, boundary pushing, and simply new "stuff". And you get that here, right from track 1, with those super unique vocal harmonies that pop in and out of the left speaker. Then in track 2, with that really unique acoustic guitar part. Whose brain writes that kind of stuff? It's so impressively fresh, and it sets up a wonderful expectation for each track ahead to give me something interesting. So the one downside that I usually have with these unique sounding acts is that by the end of listening to them I tend to get a bit exhausted. There's so many layers and new things and they are all so tightly packed that by the end you realize you haven't had many moments to sit into a groove or a series of tracks where you can expect to just sit back and jive for a little. Your ears have to be "on" the whole time. Maybe I just like more of a blend, but I would have loved a single track in the middle that was a 4 minute groove intermission that cleanses your palate. "Stills Is The Move" is the big hit on this one and pops up on indie rock playlists for me pretty often. It's a cool song and at times gives me a little bit of Santigold... there's even a moment where the singer does a Beyonce-like run. Fun stuff! "Two Doves" is beautiful. I love the strings that come in and interject themselves throughout. This was a fun listen, and I'm definitely excited to hear more from them.
2009 was a year of music I really don't like, and this is no exception to the rule. The way he switches into falsetto mid line is pissing me off. This sucks. One of the only albums I've really debated just not listening to the whole thing.
Drugs were the worst thing that ever happened to music, because it allowed nerds who took all AP classes in high school to go on to graduate from Berkeley by the skin of their teeth and then form indie bands that thought writing songs where they threw in everything plus the metaphorical sink made their music interesting and artistic and, dare I say, experimental, when in reality it just made it obnoxious and unlistenable. Unfortunately, these bands were extremely popular in the late 2000s thanks to the non-musically-inclined hipsters who listened to these bands because they thought it made them look intellectual. And so, a ton of bands who never should’ve been signed became canonized right before their 15 minutes of fame ran out, like popes made blessed before the pre-pubescent boys they slept with grew up and publicized their experiences as victims. There’s a world where Dirty Projectors are restrained. In that world, they make a pretty good late 2000s indie album. They clearly have the raw talent, so it’s possible; you can hear where the vocal melodies and riffs on Bitte Orca almost come together to make catchy twee-pop. But every time they start to get close to writing a good song, their Adderall script runs dry and we as the listener are subjected to 50 new, unrelated ideas all at once. To call this album “scatterbrained” would undersell how tangential every section on every song actually feels. If Dirty Projectors were tighter, I still wouldn’t like them, but I would’ve seen the argument in their favor; as it stands, I loathe them, and I loathe this record. It’s everything I hate about 2000s indie music. I also feel like its contemporary praise was overstated, and now, as a result, Bitte Orca and albums like it are deemed ✨essential listening✨ without considering whether it actually left any long-term impact while also simultaneously aging so poorly that it has become unlistenable now that this style of indie pop is out of vogue. I could summarize Bitte Orca with one word– forced. Dirty Projectors are trying so hard to sound complex, so they force themselves to do too much, and this record assumes that its listener is also forcing themselves to like complex music so they can validate a musical superiority complex. Without this forced element, Bitte Orca would still be a lame, overpraised, and dated 2000s indie album, but as it is, it’s now grating, unnecessary, and stinks of all the privileged woes of late 2000s hipsterdom.
В статье написано что это рок группа, но из того, что удалось послушать из этого альбома по ощущению это обыкновенная попса.
понравилось, вайбово. напомнило кинг гизард и gotye
If you can’t do one genre amazingly why don’t you do several poorly.
3.5 stars. Avante-garde indie rock/pop. Tough to define with it's unconventional sound and stop-start melodies. Beautiful moments at times though. Standout tracks are "Stillness Is The Move" with Amber Coffman's singing and catchy hook, and "No Intention".
Very interesting listen. Was not familiar with beforehand but really enjoyed
'And what hits the spot, yeah, like Gatorade?'; 'Please don't defend a silver lining / Around the halo of what is already shining'; 'Maybe you meant no intention.' Hard to describe, sure, but not hard to feel. Lyrically is where this album has every opportunity to break down, but it never does, saved not only by the stunningly balanced instrumentation, but by the words themselves, which are authentically poetic, drifting enuf into outer space for me to want to do the work to ground them, a challenge that pays off in the end. Longstreth can sing all he wants about a 'fluorescent half dome' and I'll trust that there is, indeed, intention behind it. And not that intention is all what matters when the music is sheer pleasure - guilty if anything.
13/02/25 I wasn't really a fan and it was quite boring.
Different, interesting. Quite good!
Came and went... Really nothing crazy. They where guaranteed better albums in this era to get a spot if you ask me.
Oh goody, more pretentious hipster bullshit.
2.5/10
3.4
barely melodic but uninteresting
I'm guessing that this band's opinion of itself is much higher than my opinion of them. Maybe I'm not hip because I didn't find this oddity enjoyable. With such a rich world of music to choose from where does the author find this crap? This album does not belong on the list.
Too much "experimental". It's hard to concentrate on the music.
This is quite quirky, and I like how experimental it is.
What a college a capella group would sound like if they started a band.
Actually liked a few songs in the end but the first ones were too chaotic for me- Two doves was actually a really good song useful chamber gave me a uneasiy and funny feeling so 10/10 no intention is a normal sounding song and quite good
fun sound at times
M'eh
Odd, disjointed, occasionally beautiful, avant gardesque indie rock. It's all over the place; it's like someone's musical stream of consciousness... and that's a good thing. Best Tracks: Cannibal Resource; Stillness Is The Move; Two Doves
I barely made it through this. The only reason this would get 2 stars would be to leave room on the bottom for garbage like yesterday's album.
Not great
Dirty Projectors — ребята, безусловно, с амбициями: они как будто бы решили доказать всему миру, что гармония — это не обязательное условие музыки, а чисто опциональная штука. Но вместо того, чтобы удивлять потрясающими новыми экспериментами, их творчество вызывает только гримасу удивления на лице. Каждая песня — какой-то случайный набор звуков, слепленных наспех, будто они опаздывали к дедлайну. В целом, их музыка звучит так, как если бы нейросеть попросили сгенерировать песню, и в качестве текста закинули бы туда рандомные комментарии из пабликов ВК. Хотя, нейросеть, наверное, сделала бы лучше. У ребят же получился не полёт фантазии, это полёт в турбулентности, где слушатель — не пассажир, а жертва. Практически весь альбом — это какой-то огромный, нескончаемый вокализ, который вот-вот должен плавно перейти в нормальную музыку, но нормальная музыка так и не начинается. В «Богемской Рапсодии» это хотя бы было интересно, здесь — нет.
Simply incredibly bland and bad. There is nothing worth listening here. I was glad when it ended.
This album epitomizes hipster pop, embodying its eclectic, seemingly random mix of styles. To some, it may seem like a messy art project, but to its creators, it's a masterpiece. As for me, it’s just a pile of shit, trying to be something that it’s not.
this list has hit a new low, can I ask for a score less than 1 please? utter shite
Although I tend to admire "weird" music, this one made me groan. The schizophrenic tendencies of this album are overwrought and annoying. While both the vocals and the guitars going on during 'Temecula Sunrise' would sound good in isolation, they're jammed together in total rhythmic dissonance. 'Two Doves' sounds like a psychotic cover of Nico's 'These Days'. In acknowledgement of the obvious inspiration, the song even rips a fitting lyric from Nico's song and declares itself an untouchable "failure". Is this supposed to be some outrageously cheeky meta-irony that I can't begin to comprehend? Although none of it is bad, I'm baffled by this bunch of bizarro songs.
not my thing.
Обычный инди рок. Не плохой, но и не шибко хороший
nah
I feel like I should appreciate the ambition and that it wants to be more than just another indie album, but I also don’t really want to listen to it again, so…
Bland 00's hipster blandness. Bland.
Indie pop that was not derivative or uninteresting. Plus, the title translates to Please Orca. Which starts an entirely different discussion about politeness to sea mammals and what the orca was being asked to do.
In America we have this expression that comes from baseball: "out of left field" which means from an unexpected place. I wanted to write just a four word review using that phrase, but I hate it when people use sports metaphors and so I felt I should provide a little context for anyone who would find that expression to be, well, from out of left field.
Hm. I suppose I should be as appreciative of getting this album as I was the previous one (Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief"), as I can't say I particularly enjoyed either album but also had never heard of them before this project, and in Fairport Convention's case it felt like a missing puzzle piece in my very vague sense of British music genre histories. But I'm struggling to feel appreciative of much of anything in "Bitte Orca", except perhaps that it's not an overly long album, a rarity among the 21st-century entries. (I vaguely hoped that the video for "Stillness is the move" might be a highlight, but all I can say is that it will likely reinforce any existing feelings towards the band, for good or (in my case) bad.) I *did* enjoy reading this reflection in the Wikipedia entry (by Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear): "Bitte Orca is so distinctly Dirty Projectors that I didn't even know how to begin to describe what genre it is, you know? What would one categorize it as?" I agree completely, although he had a much more positive take on that than I do. Uncharitably, I would probably categorize this album (and possibly the band) as more than a bit pretentious, disappointingly jarring, and as far as I can tell very happily living in a musical cul-de-sac. Although a bit of a mystery why it got included in the first place, I'm not at all surprised to discover that this album only made it into one edition of this project's book (2011 edition).
Quirky? Pretentious? Discordant? These are a few words that popped into my head when I listened to this album. In general, I like music that sounds good, and this does not, for the most part. But is it bad in a good way? Maybe.
This album offers a precise glimmering slice of what so many have tried to offer before. Those of us with ears hungry for something different have often chased after those flawed gems loving them for their brave imperfections. On Bitte Orca you can hear your pick of past exemplars, I have mine but you'll have your own I imagine. I almost don't want to let slip the things I hear. I don't want to narrow the view of this wonderful kaleidoscope. So, just know that x, y, and z or foo, bar and baz are all experimentally sliding around inside an idiosyncratic chamber of delights — a full range of feelings available if you care to spend the time with these Dirty Projectors.
A bit meh.
Easily some of the most hipster shit I've ever heard. And guess I'm a hipster, cause I liked this a bunch. It's definitely over the top and the echoing feamale leads is way too much at times, but this doesn't sound like anything else on this list so far, and it gets bonus points for that. My favorites were Two Doves and Remade Horizon.
Found this really interesting and enjoyed a few plays through. I knew a couple of Dirty Projectors songs but never really got into any of their albums. This kinda reminded me why. They have a load of creative ideas and throw disparate beats and instruments together in a really playful way while the vocals skim around on top and through in a very indie kinda way. There are moments when I love it and it excites me but they always seem to skirt around a great idea and never quite turn it into a fantastic song. The elements are there for this to have been a 5 but it just never quite realises its potential for me. I’d buy the album if I spot it in the wild some day but I couldn’t pick out one track to add to my playlist.
Beaucoup de fioritures dans cet album, autant dans les arrangements que dans les voix. C’est très beau, mais souvent trop, trop sucré, trop mielleux pour les oreilles. Individuellement, ça pourrait passer, mais couches sur couches ça frôle l’indigestion. Les pièces plus sobres passent bien par contre : notamment « Stillness in the Move » et « Two Doves ». Certaines harmonies vocales rappelle Camille et son grand album « Le fil », qui est par contre beaucoup plus puissant et réussi. Devant le faible nombre d’albums français dans ce palmarès, je remplacerais sans hésitation cet album-ci par ce dernier.
По мнению А: 3/5 По мнению С: 2/5 ИТОГОВАЯ ОЦЕНКА: 2/5 (24.01.2025)
Overall cozy album with interesting sound patterns and fun experiments. I found the album to be thematically a bit all over the place and some of the writing a little nonesensical. However this was I think a fine, be it one time, listen. Favorite track: no intention. Overall score: 6.6/10
Terrible. Hurt my ears
Nice album - agree with others the tweeness sounds of its time, but appreciate the interesting sounds.
Unfortunately mid and doesn’t need to be heard before u die.
Meh. I just can’t think of anything to say about it, really. I forgot about it an hour later.
The first song was a bit weird but it had shades of The Futureheads and the Flaming Lips, leaving me cautiously optimistic. But that was as good as it got. On some of the songs, it seemed like different band members were playing completely different songs and genres to each other and it just didn't work.
Didn't hate, didn't love
80s throwbacks, with a dash of Indie
Pretty nice.
Saw Two Doves come down from the heavens when I was listening to this during a Temecula Sunrise.
This irks me. Comes of as pretentious
Wavy
This is one of the weirdest albums I've heard in a while and I loved every second of it. I wanna listen to more of the Dirty Projectors now!
Weird noises, weird music and boring to boot.
Someone loves the smell of his own shit, I think.
Def a twee quality that's aged poorly but overall a fun art pop album. I'd give it 3.5 but I can see why the pitchfork crowd swooned over it back in the day. The band is pretty sick, some wild polyrhythms and harmonies
Democrats vs Republicans
Dangerously close to one-star territory. Hard to say I enjoyed a single song.
A sloppy mess, to put it kindly
Somehow all the songs sound the same , except they don’t.
I actually enjoyed this even tho it felt like an 0815 indie album
I’d like to rate this higher due to degree of difficulty, but I believe the complexity and overwrought construction of the songs is self-inflected and affected. At times there are great moments, but they feel accidental.
Hadn’t heard of them before and quite enjoyed this album.
It sounds like a typical 2000 indie record. I never listened to that and I still think I did not miss anything important. This als goes for this album. Not bad but also not interesting.
Interesting, creative, fresh.
Kind of catchy
Stellar vocal work by the American experimental band, who caught the attention of none other than Björk herself, and led her to perform on the follow-up EP to this album. *Bitte Orca* currently occupies the 26th slot in my own personal ranking of the albums released in 2009. Which is not too bad, I guess. That said, there are so many other pivotal releases from that year that Dimery's book doesn't mention -- including some by acts such as Girls, Fuck Buttons and Vic Chesnutt that could easily be placed in the top 5 positions... You see where I'm heading at here? Besides, I partly share the impression of many casual listeners on this app : *Bitte Orca* is maybe a little too obfuscated and well-mannered for its own good. You can draw all sorts of wonderful doodles if you want, but once in a while, the economy of a straight line is a thing of wonder as well. It's a lesson those admittedly great musicians and performers seem to have lost along the way. And it's maybe why I don't think this LP, as artfully crafted as it is, will ever go straight to my heart. 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) Number of albums left to review: around a hundred, as I've gone over the 1000 line and this generator is including albums from all editions of the book Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 445 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 267 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 324 (including this one)
3.5?
Not that good. A couple parts that sounded mildly interesting, but mostly felt contrived and weird just for the sake of being different.
This initially washed over me, but I thought I’d give it another go and it’s definitely a grower. I do have a thing for lo-fi indie beats with slightly fae vocals, and one of the singers reminded me of Lily Allen or someone in that sort of oeuvre. The standout highlight track for me was Two Doves which had some gorgeous strings and minimal guitar. This isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it might spark an ember somewhere with someone who enjoys it.
I'm a bit torn by this one. With this kind of experimental pop it's sometimes hard to distinguish between genius and intellectual self-gratification. Sometimes I wanted to smash my headphones, sometimes I was enjoying what I was listening to. Might require another listen to fully make my mind.
Up to track 6, this feels not bad but long af. can't believe I'm only like 25 minutes in
Since this album got loads of hate I feel like I should defend it a bit. I had never heard it before and it offered some of the originality I was desperate for when I started doing this album thing. I thought the production was really interesting and the sparse playing was unlike anything I’ve heard recently. Some of the instrumental sections were really cool, like around 2:30 of remade horizon for example. The only thing I didn’t really like about it was the male vocal melodies, they were a bit meandering and didn’t support the music well. Overall though I will definitely be listening again. For originality, and how much I liked it on the first listen it gets a 5. I like how the top review described it as ‘up its own arse’, I mean that’s purely a prejudice of the listener. I’ve criticised this list a lot, and seemingly it cannot win as there is always someone criticising the album choice, with the exceptions of the Beatles and pink Floyd, but I have to give it credit for showing me something a bit different and interesting.
They reminded me a lot of White Denim. And much like them it’s interesting stuff but not something I’ll listen to often
Never really got in to this band. They seem kind of like a poor man's Akron/Family to me. It was fine for sure, and I probably would have been more in to this if I had actually heard it closer to when it came out.
Not terrible, so on this list, that's worth 2 stars, buI never want to hear it again.
I listened twice, couldn't pin down my thoughts fully but it got my attention and I enjoyed it! :)
i don’t even know what genre this would be called but i know i don’t like it
I really hated this, but acknowledge it's probably a personal preference thing. I find the lead singers voice to be shrill, with an effect on my ears reminiscent of styrofoam. The backing vocalists cooing and yelping are tedious and gets under my skin. The instrumentals are proficient and technical (I'll give them that), but the meandering flow, and changing time signatures and tempo in top of my other criticisms made this album unlikeable, and virtually unlistenable. The last 30 seconds of the album were very good. But certainly a net-negative experience. 1.3/5 -> 1/5
A few bright spots but generally not for me.
Even after multiple listens, I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Bitte Orca. It’s an album that defies easy categorization, much like its abstract, enigmatic title. Back in 2009, when publications were showering it with praise, it completely passed me by—and perhaps that was for the best. A younger version of me would have been utterly baffled by its eclecticism. Emerging from the fertile ground of late 2000s indie rock, where eclecticism and experimentation flourished, Bitte Orca sits at the intersection of the genre’s most adventurous tendencies. Sharing a lineage with the freak folk movement and the artful experimentation of contemporaries like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors carved out their own niche. While many bands leaned heavily into lush atmospherics or pastoral tones, Bitte Orca combines fragmented rhythms, avant-garde arrangements, and unexpected pop hooks. The record’s standout moments belong to Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, whose stunning vocal performances inject warmth and humanity into the controlled chaos. Coffman shines on “Stillness Is the Move,” a left-field R&B-infused gem that’s both ethereal and infectious, while Deradoorian’s delicate “Two Doves” offers a haunting, chamber-pop respite. Even when supporting with harmonies, their voices serve as the glue that keeps Dave Longstreth’s most fragmented compositions grounded. Other highlights include “Cannibal Resource,” which bursts open with intricate guitar lines and layered harmonies, and “Temecula Sunrise,” a striking blend of catchy hooks and off-kilter rhythms that feel simultaneously intimate and expansive. Meanwhile, “Useful Chamber” is the album’s sprawling centrepiece, balancing delicate melodies with sudden, explosive outbursts—a perfect microcosm of Bitte Orca’s daring unpredictability. Thematically, Bitte Orca resists easy interpretation, much like its music. There’s a sense of searching—both in its restless musical exploration and in its lyrics, which touch on fleeting connections, modern anxieties, and existential musings. Tracks subjects hint at domesticity and consumerism, but with an abstract approach that’s more evocative than prescriptive. This thematic ambiguity mirrors the album’s unpredictable structure, inviting listeners to make their own interpretations rather than offering clear answers. That said, not every moment works seamlessly. Tracks sometimes veer into territory that feels more like an intellectual exercise than an emotional experience, where the sheer density of ideas can overshadow the impact. While bold, moments like these can feel more like a test of endurance than an immersive listen. It’s amusing to think some fans of Dirty Projectors’ earlier, rawer work found Bitte Orca to be a step toward accessibility. Sure, these songs flirt with pop structures, but they remain deeply rooted in experimentalism. For someone who prides themselves on an eclectic music taste, I still found this album a challenge—its abstract twists and turns are engaging but not always easy to follow. Ultimately, Bitte Orca is as enigmatic as it is ambitious. Whether it leaves you mesmerized or scratching your head, its fearless creativity is worthy of praise. Did/Do I own this release? No Does this release belong on the list? It might be a little bit too out there for this kind of list Would this release make my personal list? Probably not Will I be listening to it again? I'd like to come back to this in a few months to see if my thoughts have changed.
Never hear of this band. This is great. I don’t have words to describe it. I hear so many influences coming together and it all sounds and feels so fresh. “The bride” is a great track. At 5:40 in “useful projector” I love the fuzz sounds. Seriously I love this album.
Stillness is the Move 5/5 Weird album overall. A little too chaotic I think for me to really enjoy it. It's like a few songs didn't want to keep a melody for longer than 30 seconds. But I can see this growing on me over time to a 3/5 but only a 2 from me dawg
Fun, colorful and poppy. I liked it
So far this is awesome. Abstract instrumentals tickle my brain. The second half of this album is pretty obnoxious. The vocal melodies are very reminiscent of the annoying technical flexing of singers like Jacob Collier. No hate to Jacob, but I find that style to be humble brag-esqe.
very cool album, don’t know if i’d listen again but it is something i very much enjoyed listening to, although at times it was a little creepy or just out of my comfort zone.
Not sure why but I kind of like this album. It's not my genre of music to listen to but somehow it works.
Loved that they try to do something different & do some experimentation with sounds .. . But ultimately it's like some drunk dudes in a garage just banging on stuff. A couple of the songs are really enjoyable though. 2.5 for being off the wall.
Not as bad as expected from browsing the reviews but certainly lousy. Every song sounds unfinished and lacks direction. The cool moments are quickly obliterated with noise.
What in the art school hell is this? There’s a couple of decent moments when they become a pretty adequate chamber pop band, but other than that… no thanks.
Amazing what a pop appeal this brainy, guitar-driven and pristine avantgarde Soul-Pop holds.
High 3. I enjoyed this album a lot more than I thought I would. Also sick that one of the songs was in NBA 2k13
One of my favorite albums of someone I’ve never heard of
I like how the first song starts a lot with the long snazzy guitar. vocals come in and it’s like disjointed in a way I found weird at first but then it got nice. Generally the vibes are kind of like async beats with indie style vocals and I’m digging it so far. Stillness is the move comes in with some new high pitched sounds that i really like, and the lady vocals are so nice. Honestly overall opinion is a bit angsty for me
I remember getting this album when it came out. I had heard “Stillness is the Move” at an Urban Outfitters probably. I remember getting it and being incredibly disappointed at the presence of this dude. It gave me the impression of an annoying perv and his two teenage wives starting a band. There are some good parts, but you don’t get to enjoy them for very long before it totally changes on you. I found it annoying by the end of the listen and it was mostly that guys fault. And ugh that awful jangly guitar! No. To put them in the context of the time it felt like they were trying to do a Captain Beefheart spin on Grizzly Bear’s music. NO Anyway I listened to it for the first time since then today and I feel basically the same. I did forget that I liked Two Doves, very Nico and that guy sat that one out too which was a nice reprieve.
It's super difficult to rate this. It's all over the place and so much of it is tedious, but Stillness Is The Move is legitimately one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life.
Unusual. No natural flow to the melodies or instrumentation. Sounds like a collection of musical snipets, which is quite tiring on the ears.
Its polyrythmic, poly tonal, and not afraid to let its freak flag fly. not my cup of tea but respect. very vampire weekend feeling.
I’m not even sure what brought me to this. Like I understand it’s this app but what really got this album a spot in a list that supposed to be the best of the best. To best sum up the lyrics on this album, write down every word in the dictionary, scramble them up in a hat or box and then draw the words out one by one to form a verse. No rhyming. No real explanation. Just piece together the words to make something. The music is pleasing. Everything else is very very weak. Choice cut: Stillness is the Move
Interesting
I did not like this. I agree with others saying it sounds quite pretentious, and I think the cover art amplifies that notion.
oof ouch owie my atonal ears 2/10
yeah i have no idea what the point of this being here is
Really not sure whether this is great or terrible. 'Stillness is the move' is a great song but I think the rest of the album might just be pretentious bollocks. It's probably pass marks but only just. Getting a generous 3/5 here.
Some jams on here but also a few moment where they lean far to hard on weird scream melodies.
I heard elements of Peace and Superfood in a number of the songs, not sure if Dirty Projectors are known for unusual melodies and lyrics but this album seemed full of them. Having said that, I am a fan of Superfood and Peace so in turn I did enjoy those fleeting moments of reminiscence. Initial thoughts were a 4 but the songs kept getting weirder and/or worse. By the time Useful Chambers ended I was really missing the opening few tracks, what a fucking weird song that was or should I say songs because I didn’t know if I was coming or going during the never ending changes. You wouldn’t believe my sheer delight to hear No Intention, I thought it was a resurgence and the album was ending the way it began. Unfortunately, the penultimate song did not live up to its predecessor and i was left pondering if the album would end on a high like I expected or go back to the middle offerings. Lo and behold I was brought back to what I enjoyed about the start of the album… nonsense lyrics and what I can only describe as erratic melodies. Overall it was pretty middle of the road, nowhere near the terrible depths of our dear dead David or the tone deaf Dylan but could not compete with the ever seeing Stevie or club classic Chic. Fair to say this did not get a second listen
I wrote a review for this but it didn’t save, basically it was boring
I don't for the life of me understand why or how this album made it into this list. To use a term coined by the late great Ryan "Mullet to the head" Coyne, it was, in a word.. "Shite". I appreciate this was experimental rock, but some experiments are better left to the imagination. The human centipede was an experiment.. you don't need a Japanese man stitched face-first to your anus to know it's not a good idea. This album was that human centipede. Using the human centipede as a comparison, the album just consisted of blends, styles and noises that just didn't need to be thrown together. You looked at the mad scientist and asked, almost constantly, what's the actual point of this? As the lyrics were so irritatingly without meaning for pretty much every single track. Finally, and again like the human centipede.. you could not predict the lead singers movements at all.. the constant drawn out words, poor half rhymes, and the sort of excessive vocal flourishes that should be reserved for when a C list RNB singer does the American national anthem meant it was next to impossible to gauge the rhythm of the music and nod your head along to it. Instead my head was stitched to the arse of each track and just dragged mindlessly and erratically around until one of us eventually died. 1 star. Baffled this album made this list, and I'm furious I now count towards Dirty Projectors monthly Spotify listeners.. I imagine the other 46 of them feel the same.
I wrote a review for this fucker and its gone. So im gonna summarise it. What was the point. Sounds like it couldve been good but someone fucked with the settings accidentally and couldnt ctrl+z it so they just went ‘fuck it, put it out like that, im not redoing it’ Stillness is the move was enjoyable. As was Useful Chamber for about 30 seconds, then it gave caesar the seizure and nearly caused a pile up in the middle of the big small heath roundabout. That 1.1 of a song is the only sing saving this from being 1 star. Not because the album was particularly bad, it was just uninspiring and sort of happened, rather than even being able to understand if I liked it. All in all… weird. Dont know why i had to hear this before I died. Maybe some cunt in the band has a friend who does the list. Basically rewrote he whole fucking review n’all. Pisstake
Maybe if their projectors weren't so dirty they'd have been able to read the brief properly. It said “Make this album marketable", but due to the filthy smudges, they read it as “Take slim akram a marble table.” After acquiring an ornate and rather bougie marble table from a nefarious character on Gumtree, they spent a few weeks trying to figure out precisely who ‘Slim Akram’ was. It turned out this was Kaseem Akram, co-owner of Akram’s Markers, a Marker Pen manufacturer and almost palindrome. After this huge distraction, several failed attempts trying to claim the table on their record label's expenses, and a complete absence of ideas, they set about making a completely forgettable album.
Started off great before descending into an irritating unlistenable mess!
That was terrible.
Some very cool moments that border on math rock, but also a lot of generic sparkly 00s indie.
This was super boring.
A cool project by dirty projectors. I like the vocal and key change experimentations although they can sometimes be grating. 3/5
Dig the energy and vocals of this one. It's a great upbeat listen. 4.5
Loved it
Weird but it was kinda really good?
Annoying whining and cacophonies
It’s fine, totally listenable. I can see how in older times it resonated more for people. Idk the thing with Dirty Projectors is I can’t forget when the main dude made this other wildly pathetic and vaguely misogynistic album after his bandmate/girlfriend left him (they had also cheated on their previous partners to get together). Just very embarrassing and an album that should have stayed in the old brain buddy! Made me think less of everything he does tbh
I'll admit tos record takes a while to wither get going, or grow on you, or both. But this ends up being a near masterpiece for me. None of these ideas and sounds seem like they would make good music, but they do. That tells me that this writer is on another level
I did not enjoy this. There's some real vocal talent on display, but the whole is weaker than the sum of its parts. Sometimes the album seems self-important.
nah, this ain't for me.
i didn't necessarily dislike my time with this, but i certainly did not like most of it, either
Ihan kivaa modernia indie rokkia. Joissain kappaleessa progessivisuus ja taiteellisuus oli liikaa ja vei kappaleesta maun. Parhaat: Two Doves, No Intention, Fluorescent Half Dome
While I cant call it bad by any means this music just didn't resonate with me at all. Indie music is very hit and miss for me and this was a miss.
Not for me - a bit of background noise, slightly grating I'm afraid 2/5
Honestly ear blood. Any time I wake up to see an album from the 2000s that I’ve never heard of before, my expectations are incredibly low. This managed to fall short of even those. Artsy bullshit.
The word "bitte" is a German word for "please", and "orca" is another name for a killer whale. Frontman David Longstreth states that he liked the way the words sound together. This sums up the pretentious nonsensicle garble this album is. Weird just to be weird.
Huh?
7/10
People may describe this as pretentious, hipster trash, and I can understand why, and maybe it's true. It's definitely a bit wanky and a younger me would have probably hated it. But I think sometimes the question is very very simple. "Did I enjoy listening to this album?" The answer is yes! I really like the abstract songwriting and peculiar delivery. I like the colourful sound. I like the way the layered voices are used and the vocals themselves are very fun and pleasant to listen to. I like that the music is crisp and precise. The music can feel a bit meandering at times, with random harmonies and notes for the sake of it, but I actually like the randomness, like they might go off in another direction at any moment. Have I become a hipster now? Maybe, but I don't care, I loved this.
I don’t know what this was trying to be but I didn’t like it
Beautiful if off beat melodies. Arrangements that surprise and delight. Sweet if unconventional harmonies. Songs that surprise and confound and demand one's attention and investment of time. Pop music of unique craft. For me it reminds me of Grizzly Bear and Vampire Weekend as contempories. Pet Sounds and Forever Changes also seem like influences. A unique and beautiful album worthy of attention. 4 stars
No
Kind of fun and different. I enjoyed this.
This band reminds me of the Lumineers trying to be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing songs written by David Byrne. There are moments where the music is smooth but then suddenly disjoints itself. For some this may be enjoyable but for me, no.
Mids. Just mids.
This was nice. No vocals, all instruments. Pretty easy listening, but didn’t tickle my fancy
Challenging. Some highlights some other bits where I felt it was playing with time signatures for the sake of time signatures. Can think of more worthy albums to be here (though they might not be as cool)
I remember hearing this album a few years back but don't remember much about it aside from the fact that I didn't find it very memorable. Funnily enough, it sounds like something I would've dug back then, only to have it grow off me over the years...but with this most recent listen, it seems to have had the opposite effect. That's to say...I really enjoyed my time with it this time around. I've always been a sucker for music that sounds genuinely unique and this album fits that bill - I mean just the genre "Math-pop" is not one I see thrown around all that often. Calling it incohesive would be an understatement - at times it sounds like various patches of sound being swirled around some hipster's room, clashing seemingly at random. It almost feels incomplete, like the various tracks on each song are actually from very different songs. The at-times incomprehensible mix of wayward percussive patterns and fidgety vocal harmonies makes everything feel very tribal. But it didn't take very long for the stuttering nature of the music and backing harmonies to latch itself onto my pattern-recognition sensors or whatever. I'd say I enjoyed most of what this "cerebral" sound had to offer but I found the best songs to be the two more "streamlined" ones featuring the artists on this album cover. 'Stillness Is The Move' with Amber Coffman still maintains that strange indietronica sound, but it sounds infinitely more cohesive than anything that came before it. It's like the perfect 2000s indie-pop song fusing the sounds of guys like LCD Soundsystem and Animal Collective. The following 'Two Doves' with Deradoorian goes in a baroque direction with these mesmerizing sweeping string sections - and snuggly fitting vocals. So you have these two perfect indie-folk and pop songs and then everything else is just...kind of hit or miss. I mean there are plenty of interesting sounds to gawk at here in a "Wow that sounds cool!" kind of way, but in terms of actual songs I see myself returning to? There aren't too many. But eh, I'd still say the sum of those milder parts just sounds way too cool for me to care.
Didn't like it first, but it slowly grew on me. A bit like a polyrhythmic Vampire Weekend at times.
The songs I liked I really liked, but this was a very inconsistent album.
I just do not care for music like this.
Experimental is the euphemism for tuning up throughout the album. Sounded like some stream of consciousness singing. Was hoping for more with a song titled Temecula Sunrise, all a bit disconnected but a good one time listen. I saw colors with Orca, Bride, Two Doves, and Temec Sunrise. (2.4*s)
I am very familiar with this album (and the band) so am probably biased. Unpopular opinion: they're so good at what they do that they're actually hard to like. I think they provide something very different in terms of sound, vocals, rhythm, and tempo and this is definitely their most accessible album by a mile. I've honestly found it to be one of the most divisive recommendations I can give. They range from being wildly inventive to almost unlistenable (sometimes in the same song) and I love them for it. You either like the off-step time signatures and THAT voice or you hate them. But please consider the Zeppelin-inspired swirl and burst of Useful Chamber (2:42 will have you seeing sound) or Nico's These Days remake on Two Doves before totally writing them off. The layering, the abstract song-smithing, the fact that they could go off in a completely different direction two seconds later all makes them what they are. I feel like each song can stand alone, bright, colorful, triumphant. I wouldn't change a thing, Bitte More-ca! High 4.15.
This album is so hipster it hurts. Some of it is nice sounding but the off tempo structure of most songs plus the lead's vocals are annoying. "Useful Chamber" and the violins on the closing track are good but the band just tries too hard to be unique. A little shout out to Temecula was a surprise. Must listen before you die album? Orca please...2.1.
This album ran the gamut for me. Parts of it were irritating and pretentious. Other songs had a cool indie sound that I vibed with. I feel like Dirty Projectors is an offbeat artist that should resonate with me and that I should have liked this more than I did. I should have liked this more than I did. Maybe I was in a bad mood or something. Might have to give these guys another shot. 2.41 stars
Tries very hard to be included in a Richard Ayoade film soundtrack
There are pieces that I like but it never really came together
A l'époque de sa sortie j'aurais très probablement été conquise, en plein milieu de l'afflux foisonnant de groupes indé. Sauf qu'en 2025 j'ai la sensation que c'est daté. D'autres ont su rester dans mon oreille sans que ca ne prenne une ride (Arcade fire pour ne citer qu'eux). Pour être honnête, je ne pense pas réécouter...
little too weird
Ugh, what is this crap!
Some nice parts but a little too weird for a lot of it.
#382. Okayish, I guess? 2/5: uninspiring Song added to playlist: Cannibal Resource I've created a playlist on Spotify that consists of the best and/or my favorite song from each of the albums in this book. This list can be found here if you are interested: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7MAXDGLWlwLkFLb8veGfkA?si=FqkQQPgZTFWG0jAUJXLFZA&utm_source=copy-link
Really cool. Very strange. This is the first modern one to show up for me here that was never on my radar. Never heard of this group. Loved it.
This was fine. I don't think it was as bad as others have stated. I think it captures a lot of the culture of 2009. Is it timeless, I'm not sure, but I am happy I listened to it. Best Songs: Cannibal Resource, Stillness Is The Move Worst Songs: Temecula Sunrise
I had an impression that on they recorded songs and then on the stage of mixing&mastering someone removed some instruments from some songs, distorted tempo randomly and mixed together random songs oO But i guess it's "music for musicians" , so never mind :)
Even if It’s not my type of music I try to be objective about production and such, hey maybe someone else likes it, but this is just bogus.