Sometimes a band can take sounding retro too far and venture into straight replication of previously chartered ground.  Unfortunately for Yeasayer, and their sophomore effort, Odd Blood, what they achieve sounds like an 80’s new-wave cover band attempting to write originals of their own.  What results is a collection of stale and regurgitated sounding songs that don’t compel multiple plays.

Gone is the edgy but airy, acoustic tinged, pop from All Hour Cymbals and in its place are a heavy dose of synth sounds, drum machines and distorted vocals.  Many of the songs sound like they came from the soundtrack to a John Hughes film about teenage angst.

The opening track “The Children” with heavily distorted vocals and hammer like percussion sets a cool mood that had me excited for what as to come.  But this was one of the few hints at originality in the entire 10 song collection.

Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Cure – they’ve all done this before, years ago, and better.  The drum track on the second song “Ambling Alp” could have come from the preset beats of an old Casio keyboard. The track “One” has such a dated feel to it, it doesn’t even sound similar to the new-new wave bands of today like Franz Ferdinand and Vampire Weekend.

As I listened to the album, after each track I kept hoping and expecting for something new and perhaps bordering on the realm of original.  Yet, from song to song nothing changed except the effect chosen to manipulate the vocal tracks and some slight modulation in tempo every now and again.  I have visions of getting this album on cassette tape and playing it on a ghetto-blaster while waiting in line for tickets to “Return of the Jedi.”

“I Remember” does slightly stand out from the pack with a hint of the character of All Hour Cymbals by establishing a similar lightness and character missing from the rest of Odd Blood.   And “Madder Red” dabbles in originality and Brian Eno-esque production but ultimately falls short of something truly great by falling back into hackneyed and woefully unoriginal ideas.

But then there’s “Rome” a song straight from the English Beat school of synthesizer horn sounds and pulsating rhythms evoking memories of popped collars and ripped jeans.  Again, I belabor the point, but there’s no added twist, no new angle or approach, no new spin, just aping what was being done 25 years ago.

Over and over it’s more of the same, the cheesy saxophone in “Mondegreen” the phony orchestration on “Love Me Girl”  the hand claps on “’Strange Reunions” it all seems so played out.

I feel sometimes like I’m being played a fool, or maybe I am a fool, but this album simply gives little to be impressed with and sounds like a band lost inside its own search for an identity.

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Catch Yeasayer Thursday, April 29, at the Metro. Tickets are SOLD OUT. But if you didn’t grab tickets in time, you can also catch them at Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park on August 6 -- 8. Tickets for the festival go on sale this Spring, and we’ll bring you ticket details once the onsale date is announced.

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Yeasayer -- “Ambling Alp”