For whatever reason, wanting to go pop and rocking your indie foundation is a sin punishable by having heaps of shit talked about whatever skills you may have stepped-up in order to appeal to wider audiences--even if those very skills are things we all love. Conceived with the mindset of crafting a sound that will become your next favorite record, Yeasayer’s second album, Odd Blood, will make many of those “don’t tell me who you love, but show me” critics hurl pejoratives from their ivory tower. While it almost goes without staying that every band's aspiration is to ingeniously pique the interest of their listeners by reinventing old elements and coupling them with new and creative tones, it seems this record's goal is not necessarily to go without saying, but say it all in the fewest possible breaths. In theory, the record, pulling from both '80s synth-pop constructs and its experimental arrangement, approaches its themes in such a way that it would be an inevitable pop smash. Why is it then, that with all of these irrefutably enjoyable elements that this sophomore effort comes off more as an awkwardly self-aware attempt at commercialism than a genuine artistic venture?