Choose Your Weapon

Hiatus Kaiyote build on the future soul sound of their excellent debut LP from 2013, Tawk Tomahawk, with more complex lyrical imagery, greater risk-taking with the vocals, and a richly varied use of different instruments. The vocalist Nai Palm's voice is incomprehensibly beautiful. Fantastic band, fantastic record.

RIYL Thundercat, Sia, THEESatisfaction
Favorites: 2, 5, 6, 9, 13, 15
No FCCs

1. (1:34) Choose Your Weapon - Urgent. Interesting drumming pattern layered over the name of the song spoken by different members of the band.
2. (5:51) * Shaolin Monk Motherfunk - Classic Hiatus Kaiyote song structure, prominent vocals, light jazz guitar throughout, cool synths come in at the end.
3. (2:26) Laputa - Positively awash with psychedelic background sounds and lyrics about the absence of the song’s namesake.
4. (0:49) Creations Part One - Short interlude, downtempo, instrumental.
5. (6:02) ** Borderline With My Atoms - What a trip. Starts off downtempo. Occasional twinkling keyboards. Brief samples of guitar and neo-soul sounds. Cascading, chaotic keyboards and insistent vocals at the end augment this track’s bizarre beauty.
6. (5:44) *** Breathing Underwater - Evokes a frenetic marine motion. Vocals are the focus. Concludes with a haunting “I want you to breathe it in / the words / the water” whispered multiple times. Gorgeous.
7. (0:38) Cicada - Short instrumental interlude.
8. (5:00) Swamp Thing - Jazzy keyboards. Settles down towards the end into a simpler structure with a prominent bassline, hushed “oohs”, and gently decrescendoing keyboards.
9. (4:17) * Fingerprints - Slow ballad, subtle but interestingly-changing bass. Prominent vocals + occasional instrumental passages with sax and gliding keyboards.
10. (5:33) Jekyll - Starts off as a slow piano ballad, then changes into a faster piece with funky drums, and then a little later into a repetitive, aquatic melody. Ends in semi-dissonance fading into a delicate piano outro.
11. (2:50) Prince Minikid - Dreamy. Lyrics barely discernible under waves of sound.
12. (6:09) Atari - More electronic and synthy.
13. (5:04) *** By Fire - Groovy. Synths come in mid-way. Semi-spoken vocals from thereon to the end.
14. (1:01) Creations Part Two - Pensive, hazy instrumental interlude. Eerie.
15. (4:54) * The Lung - Lovely fingerpicked guitar, very different instrumentally from the rest.
16. (1:03) Only Time All the Time / Making Friends with Studio Owl - Seems out of place, jarring keyboards.
17. (4:49) Molasses - Another groovy track, classic Hiatus Kaiyote song.
18. (5:42) Building A Ladder - Soulful ballad, cascading keyboards. Drums come in midway and song builds in intensity.