Summary:Slightly (and confusingly) changing their name to Godspeed You! Black Emperor for this outing, the Canadian instrumental band recorded these 5 tracks (clocking in at 75 minutes) with Steve Albini as a follow-up to their extremely well-received 2000 effort 'Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like AntennasSlightly (and confusingly) changing their name to Godspeed You! Black Emperor for this outing, the Canadian instrumental band recorded these 5 tracks (clocking in at 75 minutes) with Steve Albini as a follow-up to their extremely well-received 2000 effort 'Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven.'…Expand
Lift Your Skinny Fists… told a story, included more extremes in volume and emotion, and added vocal samples. Yanqui, thus, is more subtle, more restrained. Yet it's also more moody, more cerebral, more intense.
While most of Slow Riot and at least parts of Skinny Fists shine through from a distance, much of what makes this album great is its painstaking detail.
The band should be proud of Yanqui U.X.O. -- it proves that they're not hopelessly married to the fine-print details of their formula, and that they can still wring fresh ideas from familiar territory.
Innovations are few.... Still, when these nocturnes, crescendos and intimations of apocalypse remain so musically rich and emotionally powerful, it seems churlish to demand more. [Dec 2002, p.130]
Verbal sound bites once provided subtext for Godspeed's cinematic symphonies. But on Yanqui, those voices have fallen silent, and there's too much barren drift. [March 2003, p.120]
It doesn't show the balls-out part of Godspeed, like their first two albums, but it shows them in the mode of craftsmen. This It doesn't show the balls-out part of Godspeed, like their first two albums, but it shows them in the mode of craftsmen. This doesn't mean the album sounds safe and comfortable, though, far from it. If anything, it feels kind of like a continuation of the last passages of "Antennas To Heaven" in a more rock form, but with the unsettling feelings of old gloom long since forgotten with a hint of wistful twilight in some sections nonetheless. The group is as martial and rousing as ever, and the album is nearly as haunting as the most autumnal moments of "Lift Your Skinny Fists...", but perhaps this will fit as the final statement from the band, as I truly can't see where they can grow from here. They have certainly left three essential albums full of uncanny passion and dread like no band before or since them has replicated, and that is more of an achievement than prolific composing.…Expand
Among the greatest music ever recorded. Those into common music won't get it, but it's a post-rock masterpiece. Also it's all Among the greatest music ever recorded. Those into common music won't get it, but it's a post-rock masterpiece. Also it's all instrumental, which already filters out the mainstream listeners.…Expand
So what do you do when you make an unfailingly beautiful record like Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, and then try and follow So what do you do when you make an unfailingly beautiful record like Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, and then try and follow it? Godspeed have reached the OK Computer syndrome, trying to follow what is universally accepted as near-perfect, groundbreaking work. This album is a distinct departure from the band's previous work, despite all the comments of a homogenous sound. Yanqui glistens with the feel of more than its nine players, creeping out of the woodwork like a full orchestra. There are no samples, and no drone interludes connecting the larger passages. Instead, the compositions are more ambitious, the notes more dissonant. This album is not about simple relief and beauty. Godspeed are more unsettled than ever (if thats possible) and their progressions have far less of the easy relief of past work. The payoff is unimaginably powerful. This album is to be read like novel, sat with and taken in. That could be said for all their work, and most Post-Rock, but it has NEVER been true like it is now. All that, and the glorious "Motherfucker=Redeemer," which comprises tracks 4 and 5, could be the best work this band has ever done. In a very real sense, it was all leading here. …Expand
while i would have liked to hear the voice sample and explosions of noise from Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, i still find while i would have liked to hear the voice sample and explosions of noise from Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, i still find Yanqui U.X.O. to be a very exciting listen. Overall there is more actual music and less of the ambient noise passages from skinny fists. I would highly recommend motherfucker=redeemer. This track could just possibly be the future of the band.…Expand
I cannot with any kind of self integrity, rate this any higher. While they did make a good album to say this is better or even as good as I cannot with any kind of self integrity, rate this any higher. While they did make a good album to say this is better or even as good as their previous works would be complete bullocks. There is one thing missing through out this entire album and that is the small vessel of hope swimming in their sea of sorrow. While this album goe in a different direction, (which is always good) it is not nearly as experimental as "Lift Your Skinny Fingers..." or others. It's the smeared sounds and haunting arrangement that make them one of the best ensembles in the history of music. Which is the very thing that never materializes in this effort.…Expand
