Why? "Eskimo Snow"

Three plays in, and I can't shake the feeling that Yoni Wolf and co. have blown their unbeaten streak of fantastic records...

I don't say such a thing lightly. After all, I consider Elephant Eyelash and Alopecia to be two of the best albums released this decade. Yet Eskimo Snow has caught me off guard in pretty much every sense. I've been a little out of touch lately, and didn't even realise there was a new Why? album due until a few days ago. What they've offered is something very different to that which preceded it - it actually seems appropriate to tag Eskimo Snow with the word "mature," as though they've consciously decided to shake off any last vestiges of the hip hop stylings that are tied into the origin of the band, in favour of a sound that has more in common with the alt folk movement. Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but what they've offered is strangely flat.

Things start off promisingly enough. "These Hands" is a good opener, brief and understated with some fantastic lines (such as "these hands/are my father's hands but smaller") that highlight the subtle emotional depth that Yoni Wolf injects his songs with. Further proof of this is "This Blackest Purse," with Wolf asking "mom, am I failing or worse?" (another example of a seeming obsession with parents. There are others, too) before trailing off, clearly unconvinced that the answer is going to be to his liking. It's the strongest track on the album, bristling with a sadness that slowly transforms into desperation, scaling the heights (and depth) of the beautiful "Gemini (Birthday Song)". And "Into The Shadows Of My Embrace" is an excellent ditty (and yes, that really is the best word to describe it, at least as far as the fantastic intro is concerned) that serves as a necessary mood-lightener.

"One Rose" references both "A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under" and "The Kill Tone Two" (an Odd Nosdam track Wolf provides vocals for), which is a nice touch, in that it adds a sense of continuity to Wolf's oeuvre. But it also suggests that perhaps Eskimo Snow would have worked better as a companion to Alopeica, rather than as a standalone album. They did the same thing in 2005, to great effect - the Sanddollars EP was released a few months prior to Elephant Eyelash, and is arguably the stronger work. Most of Eskimo Snow manages to pass the listener by, which is the last thing you would expect from such a distinctive, inventive band. "January Twenty Something" starts off promisingly, but as it develops the percussion washes over everything else, and what remains is relatively bland. "Against Me" leaves no particular impression in its wake, and "Even The Good Wood Gone" makes it three similar-sounding and unsuccessful songs in a row, a passage that kills any momentum the album could ever hope to gain. Things do pick up in the second half - "On Rose Walk, Insomniac" and "Berkeley by Hearseback" are both more than passable - but not enough to raise the album to the level of its predecessors.

The lifelessness that pervades much of the album is a real surprise. Why? are never usually anything less than interesting, yet much of Eskimo Snow seems somewhat insipid. Maybe it's a grower (I'm clinging to the hope that this is the case). But initially, it sounds like something of a misfire. And from a musical standpoint, one of the biggest disappointments of the year.