Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon


Hiatus Kaiyote
Choose Your Weapon
2015

If psychedelic R&B were a genre Choose Your Weapon from Hiatus Kaiyote would definitely fit right in. This record is full of funk, soul, trip and takes you on a journey which you may or may not be entirely prepared for. The music all at once can sound quite beautiful and soulful but also off and challenging. "Swamp Thing" has beautiful vocals and a splashy drum line, but it also has an off key piano and some odd singing choices towards the end. That is the thing about this record is it never lets you place it in a category or lets you just sit back and listen to something nice. Hiatus Kaiyote know very well that they can make sweet soul music (as they do on "Fingerprints") but they have no intention to stop there, instead they want to push the boundaries of the genre and force the listener to re-evaluate what they think this type of music is or can be. Very similar to Panda Bear I find myself liking this record even though I don't quite know why. It sneaks up on you, its a surprise in a really interesting way.   

This is a long record. 18 tracks some of which are over 8 minutes and other under a minutes lead to a frustrating meandering at times. Some songs seem to go on and on and on for no apparent reason then to just keep something going. This seems to be Kaiyote's major issue, editing, if they can trim down what they are putting out and make it a bit more concise it would be more successful. Choose Your Weapon is a interesting, beautiful, dirty and sour piece of work. It takes what soul music or R&B is and flips it on its head. Pour your self a glass of some organic coffee and get hip to Hiatus Kaiyote.

7.5 out of 10 

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