Dirty Projectors

Overview

The latest release from perpetually weird yet quintessentially American rock outfit Dirty Projectors is easily their most listenable yet. But that doesn't mean the band is tending towards the mainstream as they celebrate their 10^th birthday. Multi-instrumentalist and driving force David Longstreth has seen each album as a chance to take risks, and when you've built your reputation on being rather odd it's a risk to make an album heavy on catchy hooks and cohesive lyrics.

It's one that pays off on Swing Lo Magellan. The album is still an intricate layer cake of highly charged hooks, tender melodies and the orchestral vocals of singer Amber Coffman. And if we're running with a cake theme you could even call it the musical Heston Blumenthal Exploding Chocolate Gateau — it's rich and probably required expensive power tools to assemble, yet still retains a surprising amount of pop and is damn easy to devour.

Last time Dirty Projectors were here they played the Metro Theatre, but the Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall is far more befitting of their exquisite orchestration. See them play it as part of the Sydney Festival on 21 January.

Read our list of the 12 best things to see at the Sydney Festival in 2013.