YACHT – See Mystery Lights

Yacht? More like Y-delta-C-H-T. Or perhaps Y-triangle-C-H-T. But definitely not plain old ‘Yacht’, that’s much too ordinary for these multifaceted Oregoners.

Y-triangle-etc. are made up of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans. Apart from the hijinks she takes part in as a result of being a component of this project, Claire can claim to be an artist by profession and exhibits an impressive presence on the interwebs in the form of a multitude of blogs and social media accounts. Jona on the other hand has already created an impressive CV for himself since having worked with and as a part of The Blow alongside Y-delta-whatsit.

See Mystery Lights is his seventh album and their first (since Claire became a co-owner of the moniker). It’s mostly typical of the bubblegum-snapping hand-clapping gadget-assisted electro-pop doing the rounds, but has an edge over the rest in that it picks up on the anti-autotune/vocoder sentiments that have surfaced as of late and demonstrates how the dreaded devices can be successfully utilised.

Album highlight and personal favourite ‘I’m in Love with a Ripper’ is the perfect illustration of this. Intermittent hoots, zaps and twinkles are scattered around echoing autotuned lyrics. Jona and Claire’s vocals respectfully give way to each other, both responsible for some insanely catchy verse/chorus dynamics. Someone (perhaps these guys themselves?) must have found it similarly irresistible and decided it needed a remix. An impossible task if you stick to convention, which is why the ‘Party Mix’ that appears later on the album is ideal for a really slow social gathering for no other reason than the fact that it is the song drawn out and digitised beyond recognition. The original makes for better dance material, really.

‘It’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want’ is a package deal – two songs in one. The first’s energetically chanted catchphrase ‘it’s boring!’ sounds like a pre-battle pep-talk or war-cry, an illusion contributed to by marching drums and guitars that seem to give off Nintendo-y laser beams. Given the second part of the song, one might assume this ennui is a sort of indignant defensive reaction brought about by jealousy towards someone who is able to live wherever they want (woods, desert, beach, underwater, cave…)

‘Psychic City’ is the work of idol/friend/associate of the band Rich Jensen. Originally titled ‘Voodoo City’, it is lyrically 22 years old. Jona and Claire had seen him perform it several and times and “wanted to personally live inside of the world and extend [the song's] life in the only way we know how” namely: “repackage and reanimate it into a subversive damaged zombie pop banger.” An apt description of the track which is part psychedelic fairy-tale, part nursery-rhyme and flaunts a Pixies-inspired narrative style.

I was only kidding about the Y-delta/triangle-etc. bit earlier. You can guiltlessly refer to them as ‘Yacht’, but they do spell their name in uppercase, so in order to maintain eccentricity, I’d suggest selectively raising your volume whenever you mention them in conversation. “I’m really enjoying YACHT(!)’s new album, you should get it.”

I am actually, and if bubblegum-snaps and hand-claps are your thing, you should get it.