SPOTIFY REVIEW: Yellow Ostrich "Cosmos" (Barsuk)

             I couldn’t recall whether I had reviewed Yellow Ostrich or not before because the name sounds familiar but I just couldn’t place a sound to it.  Upon searching, I found no reviews for them posted by me which means either I listened to their music before this and didn’t like it enough to bother to review it or I am simply just hearing them for the first time here on this album.

            This is actually a pretty good album, considering I went into it for some reason thinking it was going to be awful.  It starts off like this combination of Weezer, Nada Surf and Pinback, but it can get more pop in ways and begins to channel even Radiohead and The Pale Pacific before all is said and done.

            Often times I like to judge bands by their lyrics and in this case, despite their clean sounding pop feel Yellow Ostrich does not mind dropping a swear word or two.  This is evident in one of my favorite lines, which is repeated in a chorus type of way: “Tell me I fucked up and you can make it all better”.  Perhaps the surprising hit of the year for me, if only because of my ignorance.