WHY?
Eskimo Snow
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Label: Anticon
Most music lovers have that one artist they champion to the point of irritation in others, attempting to force their obsession onto those who couldn’t care less. I’m going to hazard a guess that I’m not the only WHY? fan who has adopted the group as their pet cause, as the band remains a rare act that, on the surface, has developed commercial appeal but still seems to remain just too weird and alien for the masses. This is an important disclaimer because the new WHY? album, Eskimo Snow, will more than likely leave old fans a little disappointed even as it stands to reason that of any of WHY?’s albums, this is the one that would win over new listeners.
Since the dissolution of seminal outre hip-hop collective cLOUDDEAD, Yoni Wolf has taken WHY? from a folkie bedroom rap project to a tight, flashy indie rock ensemble, the pop side of the coin to Doseone’s experimental Subtle, though this transition hasn’t taken WHY? out of the backpacker ghetto as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Those pleading WHY?’s case have been more and more blown away with each effort, with last year’s Alopecia standing as the high water mark. Eskimo Snow, which in Amnesiac fashion was culled from the same sessions as the essential Alopecia, is the first time that it seems like the group has stopped evolving; if we’re talking about winning new fans over, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
What made WHY? so singular before, though, was its mutant blend of electronic and hip-hop elements with more traditional indie singer-songwriter traits, Yoni Wolf ditching his dizzying flow in favor of a nasally croon that was still heavy on the lyrical acrobatics but easy to sing along with. Alopecia’s best moments, like “Fatalist Palmistry” or “These Few Presidents,” were full of pop hooks and strange sonics- little bits and pieces of every genre Yoni Wolf has ever touched. Electronic drum loops would go toe to toe with Josiah Wolf’s acoustic drums, a wall of junk keyboards acting as the lead instead of the more traditional guitar.
Eskimo Snow by contrast feels ordinary, the bulk of its electronics eviscerated and even the production itself cleaner. The tone of the work is also at odds with the eerie, haunting quality of Alopecia- Yoni Wolf’s obsession with his mortality and self-worth(lessness) are still front and center, but the effect is more along the lines of late period Silver Jews. Much has been said by critics who received extremely early copies of the album about how much of a slow grower the album is and that’s true- if you’re already intimately familiar with the world of WHY? it will most certainly take some getting used to.
But for listeners who are picking this album up because they’ve been hearing so much about WHY? from others, this album will feel instantly familiar. “January Twenty Something” wouldn’t have been out of place on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack, with its sparkly piano line and blunt rhythm up against lush harmonizing, “Against Me” is Yoni Wolf’s most technically proficient vocal performance, his higher register restrained in favor of something downright pretty while the band sounds more like a Boy Least Likely To or Devotchka than ever.
Elsewhere, the band explores pop arenas they haven’t before, like the ’50′s slow dance rock of “Into the Shadows of My Embrace,” or the ’70s soft rock of “Berkeley By Hearseback.” There are hints of the classic WHY? sound hidden throughout, most obviously on “This Blackest Purse,” which competes with “Against Me” for best moment honors. The song is also one of the few on the album that showcases Wolf’s black humor rather than his moroseness, with lines like “Fact: the poseur and the bowler get shot first” and “Still sporting my ex-girlfriend’s dead ex-boyfriend’s boxers,” providing levity to the otherwise bleak narrative. It’s worth noting that much of “This Blackest Purse” succeeds because of how well it blends both the classic WHY? sound with Eskimo Snow’s more traditional direction, the chorus prominently featuring more hip-hop styled drums and Wolf’s trademark vocal sound effects off in the background.
Eskimo Snow is sure to be a divisive work, but the question for the WHY? fans who will speak out against it remains: do you want the band to make it or stay your personal obsession? If you’ve been pushing this band, trying to convince your friends that they’re everything you say they are, can you fault them for making the album that may very well win those people over, even if it’s not in the way you’d like to see it done? Eskimo Snow isn’t the album some of us may have wanted, but it just might be the album others finally realize they were looking for all along.
by Morgan Davis
