Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - Ambling Alp by Yeasayer

The concept is quite simple: a group of people listen to the same song and give their opinion as if they were in the same room listening to the radio at the same time. Stein said a bus is a bus is a bus, some said it was post-modernism, others said it was unreadable. Duchamp's The Fountain is called art by some, nonsense by others. Stein hit Duchamp in the nose and put it the wrong way up, Stein thought it to be hilarious, Duchamp not so much. In short, everyone has a different view on what is fun, art, or beautiful. So that's why we will weekly gather five opinions in five styles, and by all means, put your opinion in the comment section, or if you know you are going to follow this weekly, simple join the team! And yes, mostly everyone will disagree, but that keeps the music in flux, no?

Track: 'Ambling Alp' by Yeasayer (listen here)
Average grade: 5.8

Jox: This is a strange one. A real puzzler. I love the ambient background - the barely there-ness of it all is damn etheral, and damn good. But the vocals? Atrocious. I never thought I could consider vocals a distraction from the melody, but this is what happens here.
5/10

Anna: The song feels like it's all over the place and yet you (yes, you) know it's cohesive. The unsteady vocals combined with the clever musical twists and turns result to a tune immensely enjoyable. We (yes, we) want more!
7.5/10

Linda: When I heard Yeasayer for the first time, I was positively surprised. This time, not so much. To me, this song could have just as easily come of their first album, which isn't a good thing since that came out almost three years ago. And with that amount of time, you ought to be able to make at least some progress, shouldn't you?
5.3/10

Jon: Is it bath time in the Yeasayer household? I like the aquatic effects at the start. Mix this with the reflective thoughts the lyrics push and it makes me imagine the band splashing around in puddles, having a rare old time whilst they contemplate how to hit the future running. The music reminds me of OMD, whom I didn't like in their day, but I grew to appreciate over recent years.
7.2/10

Stef: "Stick up for yourself son / never mind what anybody else done", there's something about that line that totally rubs me the wrong way, perhaps (and I'm going on a limb here!) it's the forced rhyme. We can't all be Edgar Allan Poe, I know, but rhyme should be more fluent than that or not be there at all. The vocals, I don't know which one of them is singing, but there is something quivering in there that I don't particularly fancy.
4/10