Dirty Projectors

Sure, Dirty Projectors may look like a pretentious NYC art-pop band but, well, it pretty much is. However, based on the band's latest release, the enlarged ego that frontman Dave Longstreth displays in interviews is totally deserved. Bitte Orca is really fucking good. There's an African pop influence in the guitar lines; an R&B groove in the drums and vocals of the album's first single, "Stillness Is the Move"; a Talking Heads jones; a bit of punk spirit (the group's previous LP, 2007's Rise Above, was a re-imagining of Black Flag's Damaged); and yet it all falls under the umbrella of chamber pop. The angelic vocal harmonies of keyboardist Angel Deradoorian and guitarist Amber Coffman are ever present and perfectly complement Longstreth's warbled falsetto, making for some of the most interesting vocalizing going on in indie rock right now. Longstreth has been toiling away at experimental pop since 2002, and he has brought Dirty Projectors to its most accessible incarnation yet — all without sacrificing any of the experimental stuff that makes this band so exciting.