''If You See Me, Say Yes'' is the debut album by the

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

-based artist, Flock of Dimes, also known as Jenn Wasner of the indie band

Wye Oak The Wye Oak was the largest Quercus alba, white oak tree in the United States and the State Tree of Maryland from 1941 until its demise in 2002. Wye Oak State Park preserves the site where the revered tree stood for more than 400 years in the ...

. The album was released on September 15, 2016 by

Partisan Records Partisan Records is an independent record label with offices in London, Berlin, and Los Angeles, as well as in New York City, where the company was co-founded in 2007 by Tim Putnam and Ian Wheeler. The label, initially run out of Putnam's South B ...

Music videos

Roughly two months before the album's release, a music video was released for the single track, "Semaphore". The video was produced by Michael Patrick O’Leary and Ashley North Compton, and features Wasner wearing white and black makeup whilst interacting with various animations of shapes and colors.

Critical reception

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, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''If You See Me, Say Yes'' has an

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score of 83, based on nine reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Joe Goggins of '' The Skinny'' considered the album to be a compelling "grab-bag of Wasner's myriad off-kilter pop influences," adding that the largely

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

palette "

uits * Unemployment Insurance Tax System of Iowa, USA * University of Information Technology and Sciences a private university in Dhaka, Bangladesh * University Information Technology Services of the Indiana University Indiana University (IU) i ...

her down to the ground" and noting that the meld of the singer's vocal melodies and musicianship "allows her the sort of flexibility you need to be able to pull off this kind of

experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental music, experimental techniques such as m ...

record, and the vision, too". Timothy Monger of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote that the album was a personal but warm and inviting effort which consolidates on Flock of Dimes' earlier "atmospheric

bedroom pop Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or music production, production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a delibe ...

singles", praising the luscious harmonies, trickling synths and "clever rhythmic ships". '' Uncut'' compared Wasner to

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

due to her inspired chord changes, melodies, sophisticated language and smooth vocals. Writing for '' Drowned in Sound'', Sam Cleeve praised the album for matching synthetic and processed instrumentation with Wasner's warm voice and "knack for melody", also describing the record as a "kind of

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

". James Appleyard of ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'' emphasised how Wasner forwent the

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

of Wye Oak for a mature, synth-heavy sound which "showcases a solid knack for crafting rousing, erudite pop music", and praised the musician for "fully mbracingher pop sensibilities, even if at times, this gets the better of her." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' reviewer Evan Wytlewski described the album as the "most all-encompassing document of asner'stastes yet, incorporating dreamy

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

and digital pop." Although they felt that the "tension and menace" of Wye Oak was missing, the record's contented nature was "a fair tradeoff". Scott Dransfield, writing for '' Under the Radar'', considered the album to be a "refined work of

indie-pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and ...

beauty ready for road trips or daily life".

Track listing

Personnel

Jenn Wasner Jennifer Lynn Wasner (born April 16, 1986) is an American musician from Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore. Wasner is best known as one of the founding members of the band Wye Oak (band), Wye Oak, along with Andy Stack (Musician), Andy Stack. Wasner ...

- Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboard * Aaron Roche - Guitar, bass, piano, voices, trombone, trumpet, drums * Andy Stack - Saxophone * Ryan Seaton - Saxophone and drums * Susan Alcorn - Pedal steel

References

{{Authority control 2016 debut albums Flock of Dimes albums Experimental pop albums Indie pop albums by American artists Synth-pop albums by American artists