Amen and Goodbye

Background and recording

Yeasayer recorded live as a band for the first time in the wilderness of upstate New York, with Amen & Goodbye requiring an atypically long four years to release, explained at least in part by a rainstorm leak that damaged much of their tapes. That same storm was recorded for the background noise in “Gerson’s Whistle,” which appropriately concludes, “Troublemakers make the world go round.”

Artwork

The cover art was created by sculptor David Altmejd, and was described by the band as, "Sgt Pepper meets Hieronymous Bosch meets Dali meets PeeWee's Playhouse."

Critical reception

The album was described by Transverso Media as, "Yeasayer’s most heterogeneous body of work, both in terms of the patchwork of its sonic and textural peaks and valleys but also its blending of classic motifs with newly formed bizzarities in a way that never feels heavy handed or campy," stating, "they don’t just reconcile the worldbeat freak rock of All Hour Cymbals, psychedelic pop of Odd Blood, and brooding, dark electronica of Fragrant World, but manage to transcend time and space itself with a mélange of biblical allusions, futuristic sound, and countless other seemingly disparate stylistic and thematic juxtapositions."