Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt are possibly the scariest hippies you will ever hear. My appreciation of this, Yacht's second album as a duo, was probably much enhanced by the fact that the download version I purchased off Amazon lacks the portentious spoken-word intros to the songs that are apparently found on the physical version of the record. Thus unhindered, these songs seeth with menace ("I love you like a small town cop / Wanna smash your face in with a rock" croons Evans on "Love in the Dark", while on "Dystopia" she observes that "the earth is on fire" and, presumably in the interests of purification, we should "let the motherfucker burn".) Everywhere, concepts of peace, love and understanding vie with the girls' perpetual sneer. Mostly though, Yacht just want you to dance. In keeping with the general theme of not giving a shit, there's no dubstep or other faddishness here; YACHT's concept of dance music is that of a meaner, more cerebral ABBA, with "futuristic" bits pulled in from circa 1986, whether the darkest of new romanticism or your old Atari console. The whole thing does get a touch monotonous and a few of the songs are longer than they should be. But then, after all the throwback menace, the title track closes the album with a (relatively) gentle sway, a surprisingly modern-sounding love letter to Los Angeles and an invitation to "come along" to the "sweaty" Utopia they've created down below to compete with a heavenly reward. Spending an eternity in YACHT's Utopia is a pretty terrifying idea, but it makes for a fun 40 minutes.
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