Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 21/09/09
Label: DFA

Jona Bechtolt, aka ex-member of The Blow, aka leader of YACHT, has some simple messages. One: life is good. Two: spirituality exists in many forms. Three: let's all be friends and have a great time. On "See Mystery Lights", Bechtolt's second album as YACHT and first for James Murphy's DFA Records, he gets straight to the point. On opening track "Ring The Bell", he tells us "I grew up with fear in my heart" before asking "Will we go to heaven, or will we go to hell?" and answering "It's my understanding that neither are real".

Perhaps to counteract suggestions that YACHT are hedonistic atheists, new band member Claire Evans steps up for vocal duties on second track "The Afterlife" to make the point that "We know how to make life go on", but that it's "Not a place you go, it's a place that comes to you / And it's not about who you know, or who's in your heart / It may come as a surprise, but you are not alone".

You needn't worry that "See Mystery Lights" is an essay on the philosophy of religion, as the record showcases the bouncy, stuttered, ever-so-slightly shifty disco music that Bechtolt has always peddled. But the two opening songs are a bold statement. Already we're aware of the problematic conflicts in YACHT's mind, and we're privy to the solution: dance music. As the record unfolds, it unleashes the ethos that individuals should be allowed to live anywhere and anyhow they want. Be religious if you like. Or not. Whatever.

The optimism in "See Mystery Lights" comes out most infectiously in "Psychic City (Voodoo City)", a close relation of Tom Tom Club's "Genius Of Love" that sees Evans regale the joys of a city she used to live in. She begins: "I used to live in a voodoo city, where every little thing had it's own secret life / I might be washing up the dishes and the kitchen might say 'hang around baby baby, we'll be baking a cake for you.'" By this halfway stage of the album, YACHT's "anything goes" attitude has come through so strongly that the idea of someone's electrical appliances bursting into song doesn't seem strange.

Bechtolt's approach to life is one of fun-loving acceptance, of allowing people to find joy in anything they like and of embracing people's differences. No one is wrong about anything, but no one is right either. It's an incredibly positive message. On "See Mystery Lights", YACHT don't aim to solve the puzzle of life; they just want you to know you're welcome to party round their house anytime you like.

    by Tom Howard