Discovery - LP
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Discovery is a new side project of Wes Miles from Ra Ra Riot and Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend. They also enlist the help of Ezra Koenig (also from Vampire Weekend) and Angel Deradoorian (from Dirty Projectors) for a couple of songs. Additionally, Batmanglij and Koenig are former members of Dirty Projectors…so there’s a lot of cross-pollination going on. Even though this is a more electro-focused musical experiment, the odds aren’t good for Discovery because, unfortunately, the only band in the previously mentioned list worth listening to is Ra Ra Riot. (Please note: this reviewer has anti-favoritism concerning bands of this type.)
The overwhelming influence of those substandard bands makes LP a very mixed bag…and the abundance of Auto-Tune doesn’t help matters at all. More than half of this disc is skippable, but “So Insane” and “Carby” aren’t bad. “Osaka Loop Line” gets way more interesting around the halfway point and ends up being the one true gem of the album. There is also a pitch-corrected cover of “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5 that is so incredibly bad that it’s good. (Or maybe it’s so good that it’s bad. Wait…no, that’s definitely not right. It’s the first thing.) And it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they released it as the next single in order to capitalize on the recent death of Michael Jackson.
- Score
- 45%
Discovery might seem like a dream project to any fan of Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors or Ra Ra Riot, but the synergy just isn’t there. A greater Ra Ra Riot influence could definitely have helped matters though.
