Why? - The Hollows EP (Anticon/Tomlab, 2007)

Why?
The Hollows EP
Anticon/Tomlab
2007

Rating: 8 question marks out of 10

Why? have always been an extremely hard band to pigeon hole – they release their albums on the well respected hip hop label Anticon, but their music is a strange hip hop/indie rock hybrid that sounds like nothing else in the world (ie sounds nothing like the "Judgment Night" soundtrack). The main man behind Why?, Yoni Wolf, has his spoon in many pots, from his other group cLOUDEAD to collaborations with Thee More Shallows, Xiu Xiu, Subtle, Themselves, and god knows who else. I don't even know when the dude finds time to sleep.

Why? has just released not one but two EPs around their new song “The Hollows” (some might say these are just singles with bonus tracks, but I'm not sure where you draw the line with this sort of thing so I'm calling them EPs) – one EP to be released in the U.S.A. On Anticon, and another to be released in England on Tomlab with an entirely different set of songs outside of the title track. Consider this a review of both EPs. If you heard the band's previous record “Elephant Eyelash”, the title track of both EPs is very much a continuation of that sound, overflowing with catchy, quirky lyrics delivered in Yoni's unique speak/sing/rap style. But the real prize for both releases is the second track on the US release, a Dntel remix of a previously unreleased track that is one of my favorite songs I've heard all year...one of those tracks that you keep playing over and over and putting on mixes for your friends until they get sick of you talking about it. The British release also contains a remix, this time by Boards of Canada, a fine track in and of itself but when compared against the other, it just can't measure up. After that, each record has a couple of covers – not Why? covering other artists as is usually the case in these situations, but rather other artists (Half Handed Cloud, Dump, Nick T, Xiu Xiu) playing Why? songs.

My only complaint is that these tracks were thrown on split releases instead of put out as one long player, but the music is so damn enjoyable it is hard too get too upset over such a minor inconvenience.