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Unlike cLOUDDEAD, every track on Oaklandazulasylum is, at least musically, accessible and inviting.
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From the first song it sounds rich and original.... It's as major a step as you'd expect-- really, as you'd demand-- from someone like Why?, not only for its sheer inventiveness, but the continuity that turns these lyrical snapshots into moving portraits.
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His melodies hang in the air, homespun like Saturday afternoon arts and crafts, creating a lush foreground that contrasts something lovely with his minimalist production. This latest holds to that formula, and improves upon it.
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Alternative PressAll you can do with oaklandazulasylum is dive in and hang on to the moments of true beauty, the shards of shattered folk songs, synth-pop and multitracked harmonies that litter--or decorate--why?'s mindscape. [Sep 2003, p.118]
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UncutStrangely compelling. [Oct 2003, p.124]
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UrbA few of these tracks feel more like unfinished sketches than completed songs, but if it's sparse folk-noir you're after, why? delivers the goods. [Aug 2003, p.90]
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The WireHowever hit and miss, though, all of these voices and genre grabs are made to sound stylistically coherent. [#236, p.71]
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If you can get past the clothespin-on-nose delivery... and the constant up-and-down swoops and dives in which it's delivered, the album has a certain sense of awkward, ramshackle charm that's frequently unhinged and claustrophobic at once.