Bitte Orca

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

1.77

It’s ok.

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.

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.

Vaikeaselkoinen levy, ja yritin joitakin pätkiä kuunnella useampaan kertaan. Mutta ei ihan kelvotonta kuitenkaan.

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.

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??

Not really for me

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….

I don't even know where to begin. It sounds experimental, yet well put together? Very indie, very melodic, but not for me.

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).

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...

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.

Don't know what this is seems to be all over the place. Jazzy noise

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.

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.

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.

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.

Um not really my style.

I just couldn't get into this. A little too scattered and unstructured for me.

meh

I can't get the sense

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

This was okay. A couple tracks caught my attention for being really odd.

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.

Came and went... Really nothing crazy. They where guaranteed better albums in this era to get a spot if you ask me.

barely melodic but uninteresting

Too much "experimental". It's hard to concentrate on the music.

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.

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.

A bit meh.

По мнению А: 3/5 По мнению С: 2/5 ИТОГОВАЯ ОЦЕНКА: 2/5 (24.01.2025)

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

This irks me. Comes of as pretentious

Weird noises, weird music and boring to boot.

Someone loves the smell of his own shit, I think.

Dangerously close to one-star territory. Hard to say I enjoyed a single song.

A sloppy mess, to put it kindly

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.

Not terrible, so on this list, that's worth 2 stars, buI never want to hear it again.

i don’t even know what genre this would be called but i know i don’t like it

A few bright spots but generally not for me.

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

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.

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.

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

Unusual. No natural flow to the melodies or instrumentation. Sounds like a collection of musical snipets, which is quite tiring on the ears.

I did not like this. I agree with others saying it sounds quite pretentious, and I think the cover art amplifies that notion.

yeah i have no idea what the point of this being here is

I wrote a review for this but it didn’t save, basically it was boring

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

Started off great before descending into an irritating unlistenable mess!

This was super boring.

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.

i didn't necessarily dislike my time with this, but i certainly did not like most of it, either

Not for me - a bit of background noise, slightly grating I'm afraid 2/5

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.

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.

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 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)

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...

#382. Okayish, I guess? 2/5: uninspiring

Radiohead's ADHD kid brother. There are occasional flashes of genius, but the way it can't ever settle down to one thing becomes grating and irritating after a while.

Picture this album as a lego set. You give the set to a 5 year old to complete, and they don't follow the directions. Once assembled, you can kind of tell what the final product was supposed to be, but pieces are all over the place where they don't quite fit, and even though it could be interpreted as "alternative," it really isn't pleasing to look at. But the child is happy, so you play along and say, "Well done!"

Bitte shitte, innit?

2009. This band is one I know, but never loved. Listening to this album confirmed that feeling. I can't deny it's brilliance, technically and experimentally. But, it does not fall well on my ears. I think there is disharmony between the frontman's vocals and the other sounds that just do not sound pleasant. BUT, I will say, on a few tracks, what feels like being trapped in this cacophony will sometimes settle, and your left with a beautiful moment. And that I love. For me, there like a hyperish, jagged Vampire Weekend or entranced, shinier Vulfpeck. Obviously, you hear a lot of Animal Collective, too. The work is deft, but the tracks, aside from 2-3, don't resonate. Fav track: The Bride

Favourite songs: Stillness Is The Move, Cannibal Resource Least favourite songs: Useful Chamber, Temecula Sunrise 2/5

The very definition of trying to hard. I did not bitte on this one at all, bitte but no bitte.

Never heard this before. Pretty unlistenable. fluctuating between a 1-star and 2-star rating.

Welp, that was… something. The first track had me optimistic about where this album was headed, and then it took a 90° turn, and then another, and then another. There are some bright moments that feel like this band knows what they are doing and has a developing sound. Then there are others that feel like they enlisted a 6-year old with a Mattel Magical Musical Thing (look it up) to play random notes. Disappointing is a compliment.

Indy folk rock? Hipster rock folk? Folky Hipster jams? Idk it’s not for me but I’m sure there’s a dude with nose piercings riding a fixie while drinking kombucha in San Francisco FUCKINGVIBING to this

грязные прожекторы надо помыть

I don't even know where to start with this ramshackle amalgamation of noises. All I know is that I didn't enjoy it.

a bit weird in places, but some tracks were ok

Not sure if it was intentional but this largely sounded like they were trying to lure in whales. Reminded me of some sub-par support bands I’ve had to suffer through before the main act. Meh.

Complex to the point it feels random. Am I allowed to say it's too artsy if I like Björk, and it's surely influenced by her?

I didn't like this 15 years ago and I don't like it now. Just when they get you in a groove they uproot everything with the most garish sonics or rhythm change they could possibly imagine. I get that they want to be \"indie art rock\" or \"avant garde\" but split the diff, folks. It's frustrating because when they toe that line, the project often works. These moments are often short-lived, however. It usually helps when the interesting thing that you're presenting an audience with is listenable. This is why people find this album pretentious.

If Geddy Lee from Rush made 2012 hipster music

Just felt like random stuff slapped together. Had its moments though.

Bitte nicht Orca

It sounded like everyone was trying to show off and forgot to listen to each other.

Incredibly overrated by everyone, starting from Pitchfork. It’s over complicated, barely tuneful, the singers are annoying, etc. I didn’t understand the hype at the time and still don’t understand. Looking back, 2009 was a bad year in music, except for the xx.

Just ok

“Stillness is the Move” is a good song. Unfortunately this album has eight other songs on it. You just know that everyone in this band owns grooming products that cost more than my car and also smells bad all the time. From Wikipedia: “Longstreth notes that the music contained within the album "felt very [much] about colors, and their interaction,"”. Isn’t that just indie music in a nutshell? Other genres have songs about sex and drugs and dancing and frustration and divorce and violence and poverty and things real people deal with, and indie music has songs about things twenty-five year old sadboy trustafarians think about while they are high on mushrooms and meditating in their Brooklyn apartment next to their vegan kumbacha. They call it indie music because it belongs indie trash. On May 8, 2009, members of Dirty Projectors collaborated with Bjork to perform an orchestral composition for five voices and acoustic guitar composed by Longstreth as part of a charity concert to benefit Housing Works, a nonprofit dedicated to finding housing for homeless men, women and children with AIDS. Halfway through the concert the homeless people stood up and said "if it’s all the same to you, we'll stick with the AIDS!"

Pretentious and annoying. Hard pass.

boh mi sembrano tutte uguali.

Not really my deal.

this started out well and declined very quickly

Easy listening but a bit boring

Didn't see the point to this one.

Just blends in. Nothing special

I don't get it.

A Monet of an album - looks OK from a distance, but when you pay some closer attention it's a right old mess. Half the time the rhythm section seems to be playing a completely different song to the rest of the band, and there are moments when it settles down into a more regular type of music and then they realise that they need to be more avant garde and it jets off even further up it's own arse.

Meh

This one didn't do much for me. Started to get on my nerves after awhile. 2.5

Might be the most overrated album of the era. Should be right in my wheelhouse but I just can't get behind it. 1.5/5

This started out inventively interesting but got really hard to listen to. Not too catchy but that seems like the point.

After a random hangout with the band during their tour for this album I picked it up and gave it a listen. It didn’t really hit for me and every few years I’ll give it another chance hoping it grows on me differently. 15 years later and it still doesn’t hit. I don’t know if it’s how it was mixed but for the most part it doesn’t sound right and is hard to enjoy. Maybe David just doesn’t have any rthyme with his guitar. 🤷‍♂️

4.5/10

ja nee leuk hoor maar hoeft van mij niet zo, niks echt achter gebleven bij me

beetje weird Niet mijn ding

Gear: Hifiman Arya Artwork: 🔵🔴 Mix: 〰️ Musik: 🤨 Wertung: 🔵🔴/5

Indie triphop with lots of wailing

The sort of album that would really benefit from a few more listens, but there's no way it's getting them. Fairly incoherent on a first run through.

I liked Stillness Is The Move ... otherwise

That's not my taste in musik.

Maso

Stillness Is the Move is the only song I kind of liked.

Not very coherent. Favourites: stillness is the move, two doves, useful chamber. Very artsy and hard to enjoy. 2/5

Very 2000s

uninspired and unmoving to say the least. coke zero version of vampire weekend

Interesting enough album. High 2

Shitte Orca

Så er den også hørt. Fik en lille smule Blur vibes ind imellem, men ellers for mig at se en rimelig gennemsnitlig plade. Det var lange 90 min at komme igennem den udgave jeg kunne finde af pladen.

Der er nogle interessante elementer. Men som helhed bliver det kedeligt på trods af den skævhed der er i musikken.

Strange sounds

This album was all over the place. It couldn’t decide if it wanted to be good, bad or boring. It had shades of all 3, but mostly landed on the boring, bordering on bad.

The first track was ok, just the right side of wanky, but it leeeaped way over that line coming into track 2. Track 3 doesn't show any sign of stepping back. This guy singing is annoying me enough just listening to him, I have no idea what I'd feel if I saw them live. It's just so pretentious and pleased with itself, but the content is so bad. "Stillness is the Move" has something about it. See, this is a bit more cohesive and works for that reason. I seem to have inadvertently done a 'track by track' review again, so may as well continue. Track 5, "Two Doves", what have you got? Ehhh.. it's quite nice. I like the violins as usual. If I heard this track in isolation I might be more dismissive, but maybe on the back of the poorer tracks, something like this stands out a bit more. Track 6... Ooh I like the weird synths, but oh wait, this stupid bloke is breathing sensitively over the top again. He's starting to really wind me up. They're being all weird with the music now, seemingly just for weirds sake. Good job! I do like these mad guitars rounding out the song though. "No Intention" is a more palatable track, but nothing special. Track 8, mmmm, a delicious cup of weird indie wank, delicious. God they must be so pleased with themselves. Nearly done, track 9! Oh whoops, I completely tuned out and didn't really pay attention, I only really caught the end. Erm, let's just say that it was probably 'ok at best'. Overall grade: 2/5, "Mostly Bad"

Strano, non ho finito di ascoltare

Uninteressanter Art Rock.

See all other 1 and 2 star reviews to sum up how I felt about it. It wasn't unlistenable, but I did FFW through a couple towards the end, hoping for something that I would enjoy. Really thought it was rubbish though. 1.5 stars

It’s certainly an album. Some of the music reminded me of Battles. 2.5 stars.

Urgh. I can be a wankery indie hipster at the best of times but this was too much for me. There were brief flashes of something resembling a tune, but every time something interesting happened they seemed to shoot themselves in the foot straight away. Neither vocalist is as good as they think they are and it was a difficult listen.

The first song on this album gave me such severe sensory overload that I'm not sure how I feel about the rest of the album, I just wanted all sounds to stop. I'm not sure music is meant to make you feel like that. The album had some moments I didn't hate (Two Doves wasn't bad), but it was mostly kind of annoying and I did not enjoy the 40 minutes I spent on it.

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.

It’s not the worst album on the list. But it didn’t need to be on the list.

Well this pick is a dud. It's not unlistenable, but it was testing that line for sure

Where there is pretentiousness there is an indie opus of keyboards, acoustic guitar, fuzzed electric guitar, drum machines, with a cacophony of vocals. There are flashes of interest but it tries too hard at being avant garde.

Weird and not great

some songs when the guy wasn't singing were ok but this was not good

A difficult listen.

Indie rock standard. I guess theres production value behind it but unless you are still really into 500 Days of Summer you can skip this.

It's a tough listen, a real mixture of styles, often in the same song that is just confusing. I'm usually drawn to bands labelled alternative but this is just a mish-mash of styles, tempo and forget melody.

Never heard of the band or the album yet I come away disappointed. Theres a good album here hidden amongst a forest of disjointed guitar and captain beefheart meets Mariah Carey and mika. At no point does the guitarist simply play what the song requires preferring instead to use it as a canvas to Jackson Pollack over.

More indie. Not for me. Nourres would love this though

Not my favorite. Little too whiny to let me enjoy the melody.

Found this really irritating.

Kind of interesting but overall didn't hit

I enjoyed their more focused songs. But overall this album wasn't for me.

Meh... not that bad but too distracting.

I reserve 1 ratings for albums that I just can’t bring myself to listen all the way through. This one I was at least able to get through. I often like experimental / noise rock, but this one I just don’t see it. Odd choice for this list, IMO.

This album was weird but I don’t know if in a good way or a bad way. I’m leaning more towards bad

Some pretty moments but this really didn't resonate with me.

# Playlist track - Two Doves # Notes - The male vocals are overstretched in pretty much all the tracks. - Never ending unnecessary harmonies feel pretentious. - Boring as hell. - One star for being kind of unique sounding but that's all.

Well, I suppose we all have our limits. I honestly wanted to like this band, they had those moments where they almost seemed quite brilliant, but each and every time they went into some experimental off key or weird mixy thing that threw everything off. I was like "you had this!" why did you throw your voice off like that? What did you do with that amazing riff? Why do you feel the need to be so Brooklyn hippy?

I should like this for it's experimental tendencies but it doesn't really grab me for some reason. In fact I'm finding that it is frequently annoying me. It comes across as somewhat "lightweight" to me. Beautiful in a way but also perhaps trying a bit too hard to be so.

Too quirky and annoying

Je peux comprendre le statut de cet album dans le monde du art rock, mais j'avais vraiment de la difficulté avec les voix du chanteur principal par moments. Il faudrait que je redonne une chance à cet album. Clairement ça s'entend que beaucoup d'aristes plus expérimentaux des dernières années s'en sont inspiré. 4/10

Nice to be reminded of how great Stillness is the Move is. The rest is more clever than loveable.

meh.

Not for me

Felt too indie for me

Maybe not as bad as some make out this isn't really that groundbreaking and allied with the fact the genre isn't up my street I wouldn't rate it highly. Some interesting sounds but quite generic framework.

Why? Why is this album here? Why was this album made? Why do critics like it so much? Why did I sit through it? The first two songs are basically unlistenable. The next few tracks have areas of promise, but they inevitably devolve into noise and weirdness. At some point I kind of stopped paying attention and didn't even realize the album had ended and the streaming algorithm was playing related artists. I can appreciate the idea of playing with sound and textures to create more of an art piece (a painting, if you will) than a song, but that's just not how or why I listen to music. I listen to it for the stories and the emotional connection, and there's just not a lot of that here. There’s some interesting guitar work, I guess. Otherwise, unless you enjoy Tiny Tim trying to do Bjork and pretentious bloviating about nonsense, don’t waste your time or torture your ears. 2/5

Accomplished but ass

Struggled to enjoy much of this one.

Not really my thing

Radiohead’s biggest sin is convincing the world that polyrhythms mean it’s good

We’re gonna need a bigger boat to reel this whale of forced art rock in. Some cool production here and there gets masked by too many elements colliding leaving very little breathing room to find melody or hook. If a Jackson Pollack painting made sound I imagine this is what it would be like. I’ll find my indie art rock elsewhere with the likes of The Talking Heads, XTC, etc.

Meh.

Yea…I struggled with this one. The odd time signature on every track got to me. Could have been cool if used sparingly, but was grating after awhile. I did enjoy Stillness is the Move, but not enough to save this album from a sub-average rating. 2.25/5

never heard of them at all. Surprisingly. not awful.. some clunkers, but overall if you are trying to listen to all of the albums, there are much worse.

I'm usually into indie rock/experimental rock from the 00s, but this album wasn't chosive at all and it sounded all over the place, I didn't like the songwriting or the singing either...

Two Doves gefällt mir. Der Rest? Nun ja.

Indie pop rock with the most annoying vocals and mind-numbing guitar plucking.

Difficult to listen to at times. The best moments were fantastic, clearly bands like Vampire Weekend were inspired by this.

Some cool moments, but just can't get into this album. I enjoy Indy/garage/alternative rock, but so many of the songs feel disjointed, melodies that meander, noise at strange moments. Odd harmonies over harsh synths. Nothing here is terrible, nothing here is great. It's all fine, but largely forgetable.

Bland, disjointed, meandering, definitely not for me. I’ve listened to worse on this list.

El álbum arrancó mal al punto de pensar que le iba a dar una estrella y que iba a ser un suplicio escucharlo. La voz masculina muy chillona y los coros femeninos muy altos en cuanto a la producción. Después de un par de canciones mejoró y fue un álbum que pude disfrutar un poco más.

Really loved the intro to the first song, but it fell off a bit when the vocals came in. I can't tell if this is in a weird time signature that I just can't pick up, or if the instruments just felt discordant from the vocals the entirety of the album. A couple pluses about this album was using multiple singers and having some unique sounds in the instruments. Other than that, I never really got into a groove with this one. I was really looking forward to the album after the intro to the first song, but that seems to be the high point of the whole thing. Only about 20 seconds of a high point at the very beginning does not make for a great album.

Not really my kind of music

I liked Useful Chamber the most I think. I really enjoyed the instrumental portion of it at the end, however I will say that I think that the drums didn’t really match the guitar and other instruments and seemed to over shadow the rest. Over all, I think the issue I have with this album is the way it sounds instrumentally. I feel as if the lyrics and the instruments clash in an odd way and don’t necessarily compliment one another. I also felt overwhelmed by the music at times— it felt as though the instruments overshadowed the lyrics.

I tried to like it. And there were moments that I really did. But ultimately, it annoyed me. Definitely not for me first thing in the morning.

Standard indie fare. Nothing exciting.

Oh Dimery. *sigh* Tried. I really did. But when the Wikipedia page takes a paragraph to explain the album title, it’s as good an indication to what listening to the music will be like. Not surprised. Just disappointed.

Jeez, it's hard to know what to make of this. I know the name and cover (great cover art, BTW), but knew nothing of the band other than a vague sense of this album being a bit of a critical darling. That alone is enough to set my spidey-senses tingling; critics are often pretentious wankers who like tuneless and needlessly difficult music that is just no fun at all. For example, Paul Thompson, in his rave Pitchfork for this album (Best new release!) says that Dirty Projectors "carry with them ambitions so grandiose it's no wonder they range from wildly inventive to practically unlistenable-- occasionally in the span of the same song.... In spite of its [previous albums, but also applicable to Bitte Orca's] comparatively light tone and the band's tight clutch on melody and rhythm, it was art-damaged and, to some, impenetrable. However you sized it up, you had to admit it was intriguing, even if your interest level waned with every passing yelp. This has heretofore been the story of Dirty Projectors: a band so brainy, so good at the very particular thing they do, they can be hard to like." Where I disagree with Mr Thompson is that he goes on to claim that this record is, by way of comparison with their previous output, enjoyable and lots of fun. Sorry, I don't hear it. This reminds me of other bands in the early 2000s with a notable Afrobeat influence (Tuneyards, Vampire Weekend), but I find this incredibly obtuse and elliptical, with none of the drive or joie de vivre that makes Afrobeat so compelling. I do not find this album fun. I don't mind fresh and challenging pop music, but this takes that to an extreme. And, if this is their most accessible album, god spare us from their other output. Taking a deep breath, I suspect that if I played this a bunch more times, I'd find a way into it, and find some things to appreciate. Buit I'm too old and cranky to do the work when there are other records that fill this niche without having to put up with this twaddle. I note that this album is not included in the latest edition of 1001 albums. I think this is a subtle admission from Dimery that this album was a flavour-of-the-week, without real staying power.

Feels like a pretty bog standard indie pop album. It’s a genre I enjoy so it’s fine, but nothing special, I wouldn’t listen again.

I have a lot of thoughts about this album. Is bad musicianship actually bad musicianship if its intentional? Evidently, there are sparks of talent and decent sounding parts. I also think that this is probably one of the most polarising albums on this list. I can easily see how people can and do hate it, because it is an incoherent mess, key changes and tempo/time signature changes are for no purpose other than "because its kewl", and its somewhat of a pretentious hipster drivel that isnt going anywhere. I can see how someone can love it, because its a very unorthodox attempt at making something as far from mainstream rock/pop as it can be. Ultimately, music is art, and art is supposed to illicit emotions. But was the purpose of this album to illicit confusion and annoyance? I think, from "artsy" perspective, this can be compared to a Pollock painting. Most will say "its a mess" and question the sanity of people praising it, and people praising it will see some value in it, seeing some emotion in it, perhaps reflecting whatever they want to see from themselves. Ultimately, the question to me was "do I wanna listen to it again?", and the answer is a very confident "no Im good". Significant 30/80 yeah I think its worthwile to check out Liked 14/78 Added 4/78 YNN

Expressionismus im Vordergrund und den Künstlern deutlich wichtiger als Massentauglichkeit. Die vielen verschiedenen Musikstile und die nicht vorhandene Struktur hat es für mich sehr anstrengend gemacht, hier zuzuhören.

Ne-e, neee-e, jag tror faktiskt inte det

Not that great. Fits well in to the 2010ish Indie rock trend. Seems like it wants to be different but fails. 2 stars

As the vocalists say in Temecula Sunrise: AAAHHHH This is so hipster that it’s painful, even for this former tumblr hipster. Favorite lyrics: Your hair is like an eagle.

even as someone with i guess something of a pretentious taste in music (if you wanna call it that), this album makes me see why meatheads hated "hipsters" in the late 2000s/early 2010s. there's just something about this era of indie music. there are some cool ideas here i guess, but the more experimental moments border on parody. stillness is the move fucks though. 2.5/5

Indie sin sentido. La música va a su bola. Los cantantes, también. Un 2 porque alguna canción tiene hasta gracia.

eh

This album sounds like two cartoon characters having a fight in a ball of smoke. It's like they took some regular indie pop songs and put them in the Fuckalizinator. Songs speed up randomly, weird instruments fade in and out for no reason, the singer sounds like he's in the middle of getting crushed by a hydraulic press - what the hell is happening here. AI generated music. Not really something I enjoyed listening to while on the brink of a migraine. 2/5

I think in the right mood I would enjoy this drivel. I am not in that mood.

Ok

Ehrm muy experimental. Canciones distptivas entre sí. No le encontré ritmo

Bit of a strange album Not for me

It sounds like it was recorded by killer whales. I'm really not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Bla

If this album was a colour, it would be beige. Offensively beige.

Yeah, this just isn't for me. I can appreciate the effort but nothing I heard from this band begged for a second listen. I was happy when the album was done and I could move on.

Meh

Backing tracks are interesting: math rock guitar shreds, super odd drum beats, weird squeaks... I'm into it. The lyrics and vocal performances throw me. It is also unfortunate that this album is 14 years old, putting it squarely in that trough between nostalgia and novelty. The whole presentation and sound of this record is very "Anthropologie-core".

Man, this was a weird one for me. There were songs that I liked and songs that I hated and parts of songs that were good but other parts not so much and I think that means that this is Jazz.

Meh, a little too noisy for me.

This was the most okayest thing ever. Occasionally an interesting thing eked it's way through the noise. Production was pretty good. Other than that I don't think I'll go back to any of this. 2

A record often played at funerals for the deaf. This was the 13th time I've heard it this week and it brings me out in hives every time. A couple of perverts shitting on the milkyway.

- Never listened to a Dirty Projectors album before - Heard of them and went into it assuming I'd like it but I was quite disappointed - Thought the two songs sung by the female vocalists were far and away the best, especially Two Doves - Maybe it would grow on me if I gave it a few more listens and I'll regret this rating because it does seem like something I should like but I mostly don't - Fav songs: Two Doves, Stillness is the Move

What is this? Chamber indie? Baroque pop? Anyway, this album has some of the most annoying vocals ever. Jumping notes and climbing and descending scales at will, the lead singer is grating and has no real sense of melody. This album is also very ungroovy, which can be ok I guess, but here it is just a bit unpleasant to listen to. The beat will slow down or speed up suddenly in ways that may surprise but don’t really serve the song. There are obviously some talented musicians involved, but it’s nothing I would willingly listen to again. Oh, and I hate the particular strain of dry electric guitar tone and scribbling lines. Unpleasant. Serious theater kid energy. I’m tempted to rate this lower, but I can see why it probably hit at the time

Vähän kylmäksi jätti! En saanut otetta 2/5

Tykkään bändin joistain biiseistä, mutta ehkä nyt listan luoman perspektiivin takia ei ihan koko levynä kanna. 2/5

not my cup of tea

Not my cup of tea

Angular, kinda Mathy. Nice voice. Wouldn't be out of place on Dischord. Don't like this one. Completely falls off a cliff from track 4, just want it to end now. Urgh, started off so well. 2 / 5 stars.

It's a weird record. At times it seems completely random, off the beat and incompetent, at times it's genius. Over-all it's a mess. The male singer annoys me. He sings most of the time. It's still a good addition to the list, if only to show people what's possible. Favorite song: stillness is the move

I really don't know what any of this was supposed to be, kind of like some hipsters trying to imitate jazz or progressive rock I guess. There were some okay parts here or there, but most of it felt super disconnected and without anything really standing out

What do the orcas have to be bitter about? Is it that dolphins are more popular? Go, orca, go!

2/5 Best: Stillness Is the Move Worst: Useful Chamber

Yeah, I don't know. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't nearly as interesting as hipsters have convinced themselves that it is. Hard pass.

It was listed as experimental rock, something experiments fail as this one certainly didn't hot the mark, my brain just shut off most of the time as vocally it was just grating.

Meh.

not really my type of music

That was strange. I can't recall hearing an album so dull without being able to put my finger on as to why. I don't know what I'm meant to be getting out of it. It wasn't terrible, or offensive to my ears, just so... empty, without the music itself being bland or quiet.

Bitte Orca is just a bit too weird for me. Interesting turns to disinterested quite quickly. 2.

This is fine, but nothing more. Each individual song is quite nicely put together, but it's all a bit too gentle and doesn't have the impact that its trying to, and there's not really much coherence. As a few of you mentioned, it's in the same style/genre of a few contemporary albums we've had, and it's just not as good as them. Shouldn't be on the list really. 2/5.

meandering, odd. hmm

Too avant guard for me.

I like my noise pop albums but this was the height pretentiousness. And the male singers voice,what is going on there?

I can’t say this is good. The talent is there in all corners, but my god this is more complicated then Prog Rock, not catchy like pop or some indie, I can’t find any appeal in this. The songwriting is horrendous. Too unconventional. I can’t imagine the band enjoyed it either, hence so many former members.

It’s nice seeing modern albums on this list but usually only if they are ones that are representative of good music that people my generation enjoy. This is another album that falls short of other albums in its era that isn’t as good as similar artists/styles. It seemed like this duo could’ve done better with a stronger sound on the production. The songs felt flat and unexciting. 4.1/10

It's nice and layered but didn't amount to much. 2.5/5

Try hard late 2000’s pop.

All in all, a good album, however, not something I will be purchasing. 2/5

Rock alternatiu molt proper de vegades al que feia a l'época Animal Collective, sense arribar al seu grau de creativitat. Al seu moment se'l va reverenciar, però realment no era per tant, tal com testifica el temps que ha passat des d'aleshores

It sounds like alternative music that has a band and consistent melody and rhythm and applied and erratic, jazz structure. Quite challenging to listen to.

Boring drivel vocals. Somewhat interesting instrumentation that's constantly trying to be dissonant and disjointed and sometimes doesn't work. Although not the worst thing I've ever listened to definitely not going to come back to it.

Not particularly enjoyable or memorable.

Segue na mesma lógica na lista de mais um disco de banda indie que passa sem envolver. Nem mesmo com as músicas com vocais femininas mais interessantes.

Meh

Just not a fan of it.

Not for me.

Band and album Iv never heard of. Feels like one of those albums that too indie to be enjoyable.

Ondanks een paar goede liedjes net iets te experimenteel

weird album that i couldn’t figure out

Not interesting in any way that interests me. Some of the songs were pretty in parts and I didn't actively hate any of it, except maybe Remade Horizon. But I doubt I'll be giving it another listen. I am open to the idea it maybe possibly belongs on this list.

way too indie and drugged out

This album irked me in a way which is difficult to describe. It’s convoluted song structures, utterly pretentious lyrics (the level of thought which went into the album’s title is indicative of everything this group has to say: nothing) and general lack of melodic hooks got under my skin like no other record I have encountered on this list. A record for musicians who treat their art as nothing more than a self-contained field of theories and concepts. That being said, I’ll spare it a one star rating for the one or two flashes of intriguing sounds which threaten to grab the listener’s attention at a couple of points during the album’s run, but which are too ephemeral to ever leave an impression. Absolutely aimless, characterless, soulless pish.

Interesting, and at times even good, but I don't need to hear any more.

Some nice songs but overall too disjointed for me

As annoying as it is interesting. Excellent in some parts, excruciating in others. YMMV.

Sounds like 2009 in the worst way possible. Did not enjoy the vocals at all. Sounds uncertain, wandering, directionless but in an unnerving way, not an exciting way. Showed moments of promise but fell through.

Starts off terrible, gets better in the middle (even my foot started to wiggle), finishes like it started. The wiggle deserves an extra star :)

Both Bitte Orca and Swing Lo Magellan teceived quite a bit of hype at the time. From memory: Swing Lo Magellan is their most accessible album and I do not mind listening to it (in fact, Gun Has No Trigger is a great song).. ..whereas Bitte Orca was just a bit too much Pitchfork for me - it certainly has some good moments but can also irritate in other songs.

Too experimental for me.

Välillä tuntui ettei tätä voi kuunnella kuin jakomielitautiset. Yksittäisiä hienoja hetkiä laskematta melkosta scheissea.

Täs oli paikoin potentiaalii, mut yhden kuuntelukerran jälkeen jäi aika jalkoihin

Wasn't sure about this at first...but it grew on me later, then I realised the album finished and I was listening to random tracks vaguely linked to the album, so what I liked was not the album itself...

It was fine. I didn’t listen seriously enough to formulate a strong opinion. And maybe in the end, that’s worst than even the harshest 1 star review.

I had never heard of this band, and it was pleasant enough, but nothing that will stick with me long term.

Didn't really resonate with me at all. Am I missing something? Just kind of boring sad pop? I had high hopes since I know one other song by Dirty Projectors.

Creo que no les entendí, vaya, su concepto o el género donde se puedan catalogar. Tiene momentos interesantes pero la mayor parte del tiempo fueron ruido de fondo.

Mucho mame. Le entré con la mente abierta y ganas de conocerlos porque me daba gusto ver una banda joven en la lista; me llamó la atención la portada e incluso un poco los títulos de las canciones. Pero agh, una vez que empieza, se siente como si fuera un hipster que estudió música tratando de presumir las técnicas mamalonas que conoce para tocar instrumentos. Los primeros segundos son bonitos y muy rápido se vuelve cansado.

No thanks

kind of boring

Well this isn't awful but it sure ain't good. It seems to revel in broken melodies and dissonance, without the charm needed to carry it off.

Couldn't really find anything I liked if I'm honest

Was average.

Kept thinking I was going to really enjoy and song and then it would go off in a different direction .

Thought this would be right up my street however it got on my tits to be honest. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood. Oh well.

Not my taste

Bit weird. Wasn't surprised to see that they've collaborated with Bjork.

Best vervelend eigenlijk. Die stem van die man ook; een soort kruising tussen de zanger van Simply Red en Belle & Sebastian. Misschien komt het door de hitte, maar ik verdraag het slecht.

Pitchfork probably gave this a 12

Okay. A bit annoying at times, like a less-good White Stripes

It took 3 or 4 goes to listen to this album. TIP: They made it too complicated and it's better with only one headphone bud in. I used the right one. I don't know if the left channel is any better. The lyrics were utter bobbins.: think teenage poetry attempts. I can't go as low as one star reasonably because they clearly made an effort and have some misplaced talent.

When I tell people I usually don't like indie rock this is what i'm talking about. The music jumped around to various sounds without ever really establishing a groove and some of the falsetto vocals became really unbearable at points. I think this is somewhat technically impressive and was probably a difficult album to make, but it is not an enjoyable album to listen to. I don't feel like there was much soul in here.

High hopes. Wasn't awful but varied between tiresome & grating in some areas. "Useful Chamber" was terrible. I thought they'd accidentally mixed two songs together.

Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors (2009) With opaque, underdeveloped lyrics spiced with scattershot references without meaning (from the Song of Solomon to Bob Dylan, but why?) no one agrees on theme or message, although suggestions range from (1) gestalt, to (2) surrealism, to (3) post-structuralist interrogations of binary opposition which focus instead on a mediating third order between idea and reality. I prefer (3), and I dare you to try to prove me wrong (Turdle-Loo!). In terms of composition, well, the listener is immediately struck by studied chaos, (i.e., not randomly improvisational), punctuated with infrequent moments of rhythmic sense and serendipitous tempo variations; the jerky motion of anti-meter is disconcerting (and post-structural, see (3) above), but mildly entertaining. It certainly sounds well-rehearsed. I’d like to see what a group of kids on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand would’ve said about one of these songs (“Uh, gee, Dick, I can’t dance to it, but I’ll check with my friends to see if it’s cool and get back to ya”). The talented female backing vocals, with crisp timbre and good blend (especially on “Remade Horizon”) provide suitable counterpoint to the male lead vocal, however, all these vocal flashes are harnessed to the delivery of melody and harmony that’s disciplined but rather aimless, kind of like a university marching band doing a halftime routine of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. The musical highlight of the album, in my view, consists of the centrally placed back-to-back tracks “Stillness Is the Move” and “Two Doves”, each featuring lead vocal by one the group’s two female singers. Cool sound. I say listen to these two tracks a few times, then listen to the rest of the album once, and then toss it. 2/5

Indie sin sentido. La música va a su bola. Los cantantes, también. Un 2 porque alguna canción tiene hasta gracia.

Okayish songs, chill for sunny Sundays but repetitive and not catchy

Ok ig

Not my vibe, from what I recall.

It's a bit too quirky for my taste. I do like some of the instrumentation here, however I find the vocals off-putting at times.

The bass sounded non-existent on this. Maybe it was my Spotify being streamed through AirPods? The production sounded very tinny. Which is a shame as there could be a decent rhythm behind the lyrics. There's perhaps a concept album trying to break through here. It felt like there was too many competing genres trying to be heard. tbh I didn't give it my full focus.

Si l'absence de talent avait un nom, ce serait sans aucun doute Dirty Projectors. J'ai de plus très peu apprécié le moment où le chanteur du groupe, en plein milieu de sa "performance", avale soudainnement le soleil, avant de nous le recracher à la figure dans un ray de lumière éblouissant. Un album à fuir donc.

can't listen to it, too experimental for me