The answer is yes, something is missing. That something happens to be the hip-hop side of WHY? It’s the most noticeable difference in the band’s sound upon first listen to its newest, Eskimo Snow, and at first it’s kind of off-putting. As great as past songs like “Fatalist Palmistry” and “Gemini (Birthday Song)” are, you can’t be blamed for wanting some more lyrics about two dudes in Berlin having sex “in a dark corner of a basketball court.” It’s totally natural — I mean, who hasn’t seen that happen?
Over time, though, the album sans hip-hop starts to make more sense. WHY? is no longer Yoni Wolf and his faceless backing band — now it feels more like a true group. Instead of the focus being purely on Wolf’s voice and delivery, more credit is given to the music behind it, and suddenly you realize how interesting of a band WHY? can be. Many songs are rife with all sorts of mallets, picked acoustic guitar, and piano. The biggest testament to all this, though, is the guitar solo/freakout that ends the standout track “Into the Shadows of my Embrace.” These are songs now, not just beats for Wolf to rap over.
And the songs are strong throughout. While the hip-hop is gone explicitly, Wolf’s lyrics still have that natural flow to them, which provides for interesting juxtaposition with the music. For the most part, they follow the same self-deprecating-but-confident-enough-to-sing-about-it vibe Wolf has employed to make a name for himself.
The wild cards come with the brilliant one-two album ending punch of “This Blackest Purse” and “Eskimo Snow.” The former, while a catchy tune in its own right, absolutely kills in the chorus when Wolf asks: “Mom, am I failing or worse?” The latter, which may be one of the best songs this year (yep, I said it), would be great as just a short, atmospheric track that glides along with piano and reverb-laden acoustic guitar. At its end, though, Wolf seems to succumb to the vulnerability he’s never showed in the past. His voice nearly cracks as he sings the final couplet, and it’s absolutely devastating.
Those two songs in particular stick with the listener in a way that most WHY? songs don’t. The problem with the album is, then, that for the most part, the other songs don’t really stick. They’re all good, but they should be the foils to the hip-hop tracks, not the album’s norm. Eskimo Snow is a truly great effort, but it might have been a classic if WHY? didn’t decide to altogether discard its trademark sound.
WHY? – “This Blackest Purse” [MP3]
WHY? – “Eskimo Snow” [MP3]
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