Freelance Whales' Weathervanes

Track List:
1. "Generator ^ First Floor" - 3:08
2. "Hannah" - 3:39
3. "Location" - 4:39
4. "Channels" - 1:20
5. "Starring" - 3:35
6. "Kilojoules" - 3:21
7. "Broken Horse" - 4:39
8. "Danse Flat" - 1:16
9. "Ghosting" - 5:20
10. "We Could Be Friends" - 4:13
11. "Vessels" - 1:42
12. "Generator ^ Second Floor" - 4:32
13. "The Great Estates" - 4:03

The good news is this album should win you over pretty quickly if you’re generally a fan of pleasant music. For me, it’s essentially a pastiche of my favorite indie pop techniques. There’s a little Postal Service or Grandaddy-esque digitized romanticism, some breathy vocals spiked with banjo that’d bring tears to Sufjan’s eyes and a bit of fun kind of like…well, “fun.” The bad news is there’s always a little danger of anonymity when unabashedly drawing on influences, as Headlights could tell you. Somehow, there needs to be a signature, something that establishes a presence. Fortunately for our heroes, there’s no lack of innovative instrumental interplay on what could have been a so two thousand and late fuzzy keyboard pop trend rehash.

It’s really hard to say whether this group is at their best when chanting along in hazy harmony as in the opener or carving out sharp melodies as in the track(s) immediately following. Luckily we have all album to figure it out. And somewhere along the way, we’ll hopefully pinpoint that signature sound; but I’m warning you, it won’t be easy.

Maybe easy is a poor choice of words, because that’s certainly part of the definition of Freelance Whales. So it might be easy, but it’s certainly not simple. Let’s start with the chanting. “Generator ^ First Floor” positively reverberates with the “native language” of…whales, I’m guessing? All I know is I’ve never wanted to sing along so badly with what should, by all rights, be a really irritating noise. Consider the combination of sodium and chloride. Alone, each chemical is deadly, deadly poison. But together they make the world’s greatest condiment. These guys have chemistry in no short supply, and it shows on the ethereal opener.

Next, we’re on to the other half of Freelance Whales. “Hannah” is the first of four consecutive pop gems that run the gambit all the way from goofball twee back towards “First Floor’s” dreampop. “Hannah’s” lyrics are well trained in the Beck (and/or) They Might Be Giants school of stream of consciousness non-sequiturs. Isolated phrases are delightfully constructed and make sense in and of themselves, but I could not for the life of me tell you what the song is about. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. “Location” is more in step with the opener, relying on the give and take between the pulsating bass and the marching percussion flowing emphatically into the chorus and dissolving away again. It’s very easy and tempting to overuse an instrument like the banjo, but the Whales don’t rely on it. It’s mainly used to underscore the melody, as it is on this track. There’s a palpable sense of artistry throughout the album which is due in large part to this restraint. You can get a similar sense of the thoughtful instrumentation on “Channels,” “Danse Flat” and “Vessels.” These one to two minute instrumental tracks are rather worthless outside the context of Weathervanes, but they do wonders for the tone of the album and the overall flow.

So how do they do it? What’s the signature? The seemingly combative concepts of atmospheric dream haze and whimsical banjo pop combine into a uniquely satisfying listen. The only track that sounds like one of the aforementioned influences outright is “Broken Horse,” from the banjo accented acoustic guitar riff awash with haunting background noises and vocals to the repetition of “God is moving in your bloodstream.” Honestly, Sufjan must be cursing himself somewhere for not thinking of this song first. Still, there is an established tie that binds this album and the essence permeates this and each of the rest of the tracks without ever seeming formulaic. In a digital age of filesharing and endless mixtapes, it’s always nice to see a band that still cares about the art of the long player.