About three months ago I got a promo copy of the new WHY? record, "Eskimo Snow." Being the ridiculous fanatic I am, you can imagine how excited I was to have the whole album months before it's release to the general public. Between that time and this last weekend, I listened to the album in its entirety an estimated 368 times. Needless to say, I absorbed the record and was ready to write my review. That review, by the way, will be up on Nada Mucho within the next few days if you'd like to take look. Anyway, I spent a few hours over the weekend trying to put into words my feelings regarding the release. I can't say it's the best thing they've ever done, but I love it nonetheless. I'm on the guest list for their Vera Project show coming up on the 14th. If you live in Seattle, I HIGHLY recommend you attend this event. Read over the review and give me some creative criticism. Or, just criticize me, I don't care either way.
Why? Eskimo Snow
An Album Review by Ben Allen
"This record is really the least hip-hop out of anything I've ever been involved with." Yoni Wolf, lead vocalist/songwriter for the group Why?, recently said about his latest release "Eskimo Snow." Starting with 2005's "Elephant Eyelash," Why? has gradually made the transition from post-rap into a full fledged indie-art-rock folk group.
Surprisingly, the record was recorded at the same time as last year's release "Alopecia" during an intensely creative period of output in the winter of 2007. As the writing and recording progressed, the band realized they had two separate, distinct sounding albums on their hands. "This seems like the next step from "Alopecia" in some kind of thought-life of the character," Wolf said.
Upon first listen, you'd be hard pressed to find a track on "Eskimo Snow" as infectious as the post-pop of "Alopecia's" "Fatalist Palmistry" or "Elephant Eyelash's" "Gemini (Birthday Song)." "Eskimo Snow's" material for the most part has a more subdued, almost introverted feeling to it. First single, "The Blackest Purse," is a swelling, passionate piano ballad that wouldn't sound too out of place on a Ben Folds record. The song peaks with the chorus, "Should our hero's hands be holding this blackest purse? Mom, Am I failing or worse?" "Into the Shadows of My Embrace" is both the standout track of the record as well as a milestone in Why?'s musical evolution. "I conquered my own childhood silence and now the world is my lit confessional marquee," Wolf sings over a 60's teen-bop groove. From there, the track picks up momentum, gently chugging along until it reaches it apex. "I wish I could feel close to somebody, but I don't feel nothin'," Wolf yelps. "Now they say I need to quit doing all this random fffff. . ." stopping himself short before dropping the "F bomb." The song closes with over a minute of the band beating a riff into submission while letting their guitars get noisy and weird.
An increased confidence in musicianship is evident throughout the record. At times, the songs sound full, bordering on orchestral (see the last half of "On Rose Walk, Insomniac"), but more often are appropriately stripped down and intimate (see the title track, and album opener "These Hands"). Often the sound of the lone Wolf's howl (pun intended) is accompanied by only a piano or a delicately plucked guitar. Wolf remains the focus but has surrounded himself with extremely capable players (brother Josiah, Doug Mcdiarmid and Austin Brown), providing a musical canvas for him to lyrically splatter paint all over.
There's a sense of dark despair this time through, with Wolf's surreal lyrical approach mostly lacking his trademark sense of ironic humor. He's depressed, but not whining about it. On the title track, you hear Yoni compare the way Eskimos have many different words for snow to "all of my words for sadness." When he gently sings, "I’m under something black and thicker than a sheet for ghosts or the first feet of snow,” his sincerity is unmistakable. He's also still willing to make candid confessions most would reserve only for their best friend or therapist. "Now I think my upstairs neighbor hears me masturbating," he says on "Into the Shadows of My Embrace." There's still content that appears to just be free association weirdness such as, "sex can make you younger and older at the same time," or "it’d take a busload of high school soccer girls to wash these hospitals off me." Some of the appeal to longtime fans is Wolf's cryptic lyrical content that keeps you rewinding the disc to figure out what the hell he's trying to get across.
The last track finds Wolf repeating the line, ". . .and I'm still here," and we should be glad he is. While not necessarily a definitive career statement, "Eskimo Snow" serves as a testament to a band still finding itself, exploring the possibilities of what will be. Truly, "Eskimo Snow" seems like an acknowledgement of the gap between the supreme brilliance of "Alopecia" and wherever Why? is heading next.
Why? will be appearing live at The Vera Project with Mt. Eerie and No Kids. Wednesday, October 14th. 7:30 PM
$13 Advance tickets are available through TICKETWEB
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