AU, Verbs (Aagoo)

[June 18th, 2008]

[EXPERIMENTAL POP] Luke Wyland, the man behind local experimental-popsters Au, is a master of composition. As such, the band’s new record, Verbs, is a dizzying head rush of twists and turns. Beautiful and restrained instrumental passages lead into maniacal, choral group chants; vaudevillian theatrics nestle against almost-classical backdrops; accordions operate in waltz time. Yet, despite the cacophony, Verbs never feels overwrought. Instead, it’s filled with enough hooks that you can enjoy it outright—before dissecting the myriad of deft production touches that make it such fine headphone listening.

And Verbs doesn’t take long to figure out. Beginning with the glee of a 20-person chorus, “All My Friends” and its companion track, “Are Animals,” serve as an introduction into Au’s world—which includes a good dose of Portland’s experimental-pop community, including Sarah Winchester of A Weather and members of Yellow Swans, Parenthetical Girls and Evolutionary Jass Band.

“All Myself,” one of the few tracks that features just Wyland’s voice, is almost a misnomer—though he croons a few lines, he’s just another element in the mix, a skeletal timbre floating among airy woodwinds and moaning horns, a circling piano line and jazzy drums. Like much of Verbs, it skips the verse-chorus-verse formula in favor of atypical time structures and a gradual crescendo.

First single “RR Vs. D” is the poppiest thing here, rolling along with plinking pianos and frantic handclaps as the voice of Ah Holly Fam’ly’s Becky Dawson dances through the din. And then comes the “holy shit” moment: Everything drops out at the 1:45 mark before exploding into a cascade of horns, drums and rickety percussion—like a marching band on steroids. It might be one of the finest minutes to grace any record this year.

Though single tracks stand out (it took me days just to get past “RR Vs. D”), Verbs is best digested as a whole. Like a film with a really good plot twist, it not only keeps you guessing till the end, but leaves you pondering the whole for days.