A scavenger hunt, Carole Lombard says in the 1936 screwball comedy My Man Godfrey, is exactly like a treasure hunt, except in a treasure hunt you try to find something everybody wants, and in scavenger hunt you try to find something nobody wants. Brooklyn psych-rockers Yeasayer’s newly unveiled sneak peek at their upcoming album Fragrant World, then, is totally a treasure hunt. The follow-up to 2010’s Odd Blood isn’t out until August 21 on Secretly Canadian, but the music and accompanying visuals will be streaming online until Friday, August 3, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The only catch: Listeners had to locate the tracks themselves by scouring the Web.
As Consequence of Sound points out, fans have had a successful treasure hunt. Below you can listen to each of the tracks, including the quasi-sci-fi “Henrietta,” from an album Yeasayer’s Chris Keating once described to SPIN as “like a demented R&B record.”
Yeasayer’s cryptic explanation in a fan newsletter, as quoted by CoS, suggests the band really wanted people to hear the songs directly from them. If it’s going to leak anyway, the thinking appears to go, why not leak it yourself and make an event out of it? Yeasayer, of course, put the idea a bit more colorfully:
“We have received a message that we are on the verge of embargoed information being leaked through the cracks of the digital universe. Once again an attempt to tell the story before our mouths can spit. In order to have the edge we have created PSCYVOTV standing for PREEMPTIVE SELF-COMMISSIONED YEASAYER VORSTELLUNG or TRACK VISUALIZER.
Using the talents of Yoshi Sodeoka we have created a moving visual for every song on our new album FRAGRANT WORLD and have hidden them all over the internet. The visuals will live on the web until Friday Aug. 3, at 8pm EST. You’ll have a few days to find, listen, and most importantly, hear the album from our hands first. At 8pm sharp PSCYVOTV will be removed.
If you find all the visuals remember the track listing:
1. Fingers Never Bleed
2. Longevity
3. Blue Paper
4. Henrietta
5. Devil and the Deed
6. No Bones
7. Reagan’s Skeleton
8. Demon Road
9. Damaged Goods
10. Folk Hero Schtick
11. Glass of the MicroscopePlease remember, it’s fun to share, but more important to support.
*Warning: PSCYVOTV may cure depression or boredom.
