Dirty Projectors [Album Covers]

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Album Covers : Dirty Projectors 15 Albums

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2003 Morning Better Last! S	2003 The Glad Fact S	2004 Slaves Graves & Ballads SR	2005 The Getty Address SR
2006 Highlights From The Getty Address	2006 New Attitude	$[ 7 / 15 ] 2007 Rise Above Supposedly David Longstreth was on tour with the Dirty Projectors, the indie rock band hes been fronting since 2002, when he found himself thinking a great deal about Black Flags epochal 1981 debut album, Damaged. Given the many miles Black Flag racked up criss-crossing America during their bloody heyday, that shouldnt be at all surprising, but rather than picking up a new copy of the album and cranking it up in celebration of his fellow road warriors, Longstreth channeled his thoughts in a different direction -- after coming home from the tour, he took the Dirty Projectors into a studio and covered 11 of Damageds 15 tracks, all without giving himself or his musicians a refresher course on what they sounded like. The result, Rise Above, reimagines Black Flags ragged hymns of rage and angst into smart but fractured bursts of wiry guitar (imagine King Sunny Ade after ten cups of coffee) accompanied by breathy, ethereal vocals, occasional interjections of strings and woodwinds, and a precise but flexible rhythm section. While these interpretations stray a considerable distance from Black Flags originals, whats most surprising is how much of the original frameworks of these songs remain -- the melodies, such as they are, can generally still be recognized, and if the pissed-off howl of Henry Rollins is the polar opposite of Longstreths vocal style, the contrary message of the songs somehow shines through. On one hand, Rise Above could be used as an example of how Longstreth can take nearly any music and make it his own, but at the same time it doesnt sound like hes forgotten the original intent behind this music for an instant. Damaged was a scream of defiance in the face of a grim and unforgiving world, but on Rise Above the Dirty Projectors use the curious beauty of their music as a protest against the ugliness of a violent and corrupt society. Perhaps even more than Henry Rollins, when David Longstreth sings "were fighting a war that we cant win" in "Police Story," he wants more than anything to make a world where that isnt the truth, and its moments like this that make Rise Above a brave and ultimately successful experiment.$ 2007 Rise Above SR	2009 Stillness Is the Move S
$[ 9 / 15 ] 2009 Bitte Orca Dirty Projectors mastermind David Longstreth appears to be attracted to sounds that will simultaneously draw in and confound the average listener; he has a clear, sweet voice and a gift for well-crafted harmonies and melodies that bring out the innate beauty of his music, but he often weds them to fractured time signatures that cause the songs to shift gear at the least expected moments, and he tosses in sudden bursts of atonal skronk that are either bracing or puzzling, depending on your point of view. 2009s Bitte Orca certainly follows in this tradition, and theres enough aural shapeshifting on this set to keep anyone guessing on first listen. Despite that, in many respects, Bitte Orca is one of Dirty Projectors most accessible efforts to date; the slinky "Stillness Is the Move" could almost pass for mainstream R&B with its potent groove, lush harmonies by Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, and elegant string coda, though with Longstreths wiry juju guitar leads floating over the top, this aint quite Beyoncé, and the placid semi-folkie grace of "Two Doves" (which bears a certain melodic resemblance to a-has MTV-driven hit "Take on Me") is truly lovely even when the dramatic dynamics of the string section seem intent on calling attention to some darker undercurrents. On the other side of the coin, theres "Useful Chamber," which combines bent vocal samples, wheezing synthesizers, steadily chugging beatboxes, and sudden blasts of overdriven electric guitar to form a pocket concerto of beauty and noise, and "The Bride," where Longstreths guitar hops back and forth between polite acoustic strum, bluesy slide work, and shards of noise while the rhythm section ties to keep up and the vocals drift past the foreground like a cloud. Bitte Orcas nine tracks all seem to be bursting with ideas that they can barely contain, but despite the sometimes fractured synapses of this music, the songs are at once surefooted and agile, and "Remade Horizon" and "No Intention" are joyous and funky in their own curious way, and you can dance to them if youre in the right frame of mind. David Longstreth isnt quite trying to make things easy for his listeners on Bitte Orca, but theres far too much pleasure in this music for its eccentricities to put off anyone who is open to its gleeful, eclectic, internationalist heart.$ 2009 Bitte Orca SR	2009 Temecula Sunrise	2010 Mount Wittenberg Orca S	2012 Swing Lo Magellan SR
2012 About to Die S	2017 Dirty Projectors SR	2018 Lamp Lit Prose S