Why?: Alopecia
Anticon/EQ/Stomp
******
By Jonathon Valenzuela
In a musical age where indie kids are rushing to adopt other styles of music, Why? is the only group moving in the opposite direction, transforming from solo super-left-field hip hop icon to three piece experimental indie scientists.
They use the genre as a palette to create a sound that sits in the area of tension between the past and the future. Alopecia revels in pianos, guitars, drums, organs and reverb-drenched vocal harmonies, swirling them together in constant glorious crescendo.
However, an undercurrent of hip hop still runs through the album. Frontman Yoni Wolf's pleasantly nasal delivery maintains the vestiges of a mind more used to writing raps, and production from Jel and Odd Nosdam provide a soupçon of beats.
Less sunny yet more cohesive than 2005's Elephant Eyelash, Alopecia is for anyone tired of the regular grind of skinny kids with fancy haircuts trying to be something they are clearly not.
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