No Color

After the move toward genial folk-pop on their misstep of a third album, Dodos return to the formula that made Visiter so successful.

“Is it better to be on or be good?” sings the Dodos’ Meric Long on the San Francisco indie-folk duo’s new No Color. It’s an apt question: For 2009’s Time To Die, the group added a third member (to play vibes, of all things), contracted big-name producer Phil Ek, and introduced electric guitar into the mix—all attempts…

The Dodos have found their Avatar. Visiter, their 2007 sophomore release, may have been their Titanic, putting them on the map. But two albums later, they are back with an opus that is so vividly three-dimensional, you don't need glasses (or headphones).

The engine that fueled the Dodos’s Time to Die, and to a lesser extent ran Visiter, keeps chugging along on No Color.