God bless The Dirty Projectors. Flush from the success of 2007's outstanding Black Flag covers album - "Rise Above"- which made me go back and appreciate the sheer beauty of Greg Ginn's songwriting all over again - we get "Bitte Orca". Perhaps the first grown-up collection of original songs from David Longstreth's Brookyln-based ensemble after more than seven years of hit-and miss, it's an absolute corker and if it doesn't make it onto those bloody critics' end-of-year lists, I will eat my hat and shoes.
All the noodling about and art-posturing that gave shape to the 2003's ho-hum "The Glad Fact" and the uneven "Getty Address", two years later, finally pays off with "Bitte Orca", which has more in common with the Black Flag covers record than any previous release. It's as if the process of beautifying someone else's chaotic sound has helped Longstreth to understand and capitalise his own talents.
Where The Dirty Projectors' songs were once fractured, disjointed and alienating most of the time, they're now illuminating and enthralling; no longer a happy accident like highlights of previous records. In fact, opener 'Cannibal Resource' is the nearest we get to that earlier sound and is soon eclipsed by songs which display an enormous wealth of genre influences - from RnB to Broadway to Soul - wrapped up in an outstanding production; clean and spacious.
"Useful Chamber" represents the apex of the album - an epic work in progress of chiming guitars and strings punctuated by blasts of feedback and mellifluous harmonies.
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Another highlight is Amber Coffman's melodious and confident vocal, which brings to life "Two Doves" and "Stillness is the Move". One realises, some way in, how effective Longstreth is in wielding the female voice as an instrument; playful and skilled.
Detractors might accuse the album over overplaying the afrobeat, and to be fair it's in evidence on more than half the album, but used with purpose and never nagging. It certainly doesn't dominate as on the Vampire Weekend album (which everyone else seemed to love apart from me).
More than once during listening, I recall Modest Mouse's "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" - the album on which Isaac Brock's creativity and the idea of someone actually listening to an album for pleasure hit a harmonious crescendo. And "Bitte Orca" is a far more pleasurable experience than that record - basically just a really fun album. I've listened to it about thirty times already and will no doubt get through thirty more before the month is out (it's late June by the way).
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