[rating=7.00]
Cosmos, the third album by Yellow Ostrich, finds the band exploring new territory sonically. For starters, it is now Yellow Ostrich’s second release as a full band. What started as a solo project by frontman Alex Schaff is now a four-piece rock band fleshed out by drummer Michael Tapper, bassist Zach Rose, and Jared Van Fleet on guitar and keyboards. The result is a sound that is grittier, sturdier and more structured.
The band’s 2011 debut, The Mistress, was largely defined by layered vocals — full of hums and “oohs” — and sparse instrumentation. Cosmos thrives as much on the intricate rhythms and layered instruments as on Schaff’s vocal melodies. That change is exemplified in lead single “Shades,” a propulsive rock number blasted with feedback and distortion that conflicts with the sleepwalking vocals. “I can build any universe for you,” Schaff sings, his words directed both at a star-crossed lover and at the song’s listener.
“My Moons,” with its swelling synthesizers and 80’s revival bass beat, finds Schaff and company their most upbeat musically, even if the subject matter is still strained love. “Your smile brings me sadness but I long for it,” he confesses. “Terrors,” another song about the pain of love, is sparse musically until getting to the thudding guitars of the chorus, with Schaff admitting to a lover “I’m the terrors in your eyes.”
If The Mistress was Schaff opening a notebook scrawled with poetry, broadcasting his heart while reading from pages still damp with ink, Cosmos is the result of Yellow Ostrich taking the time to present his thoughts in an orderly, more streamlined manner. The same elastic tones and haunting melodies are present, but this time more focused and easy to digest. Neither the garage rock riffing of “You Are the Stars” nor the swelling reverb of “In the Dark” seem out of place, as both add textures and vibrancy to Schaff’s stories. It is a welcome change, stripping their sound of the meandering quality that plagued previous releases and giving the album forward momentum.
