Au - Verbs

AU
Verbs
Au (it’s pronounced ‘ay you’) is the brainchild of Portland based multi-instrumentalist Luke Wyland. Second long-player, Verbs, sees a heightened ambition for him and his band, following their charmingly understated debut.

If anything illustrates how this is not your everyday psych-folk record, and that it is a grander effort than their previous long-player, it is the 30 person choir that appears over rumbling piano and hectic percussion on opening track, All My Friends. Sounding like an even more shambolic Polyphonic Spree, they turn up again on the very next track, Are Animals. And it’s not only vocals that are in abundance here, as organs, guitars, clarinets, bells, trombones, flutes, trumpets, banjos, accordions and even saws are utilised to aurally attack the listener. Indeed, vocals are used mainly as an extra musical instrument too; there is plenty of harmonised wailing and oohing-and-arring and not much in the way of straightforward lyric-delivery. Standout tracks include the slow-burning rr vs d, which builds to a cacophony of drums, handclaps and horns, while Summerheat begins with the aforementioned saws before bursting into life.

This album certainly suggests that Wyland has listened to Animal Collective a few times in his life, and occasionally Verbs scales similar heights with its vast sound. But, while you can’t fault its ambition and execution, it often feels a little too obscure and slightly smug at its own cleverness to really engage on an emotional level. Ultimately, it’s easy to be impressed by Verbs, but much harder to love it.