Odesza & Yellow House - Flaws In Our Design (LP) - Sky Blue Vinyl

Some collaborations feel engineered. This one feels lived in. Flaws In Our Design brings Seattle duo ODESZA together with Cape Town songwriter Yellow House for a small, dusky set that sits somewhere between indie folk melancholia and widescreen electronica. It landed in 2023 on ODESZA’s own Foreign Family Collective, a neat coda to the big canvas of The Last Goodbye and a reminder that their best work often happens when they pare things back and let texture do the talking.

If you have any history with ODESZA, you know the signatures. Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight build space like architects, then fill it with soft light. Here they give Yellow House the room to breathe. His voice comes in like a late afternoon breeze, close to the mic, grain intact, the sort of tone that can make a simple line feel like a confession. The opening stretch sets the palette with gently picked guitar, low synths that billow rather than blare, and percussion that feels played by hands, not programmed on a grid. It is intimate but not small, the way a quiet room can still feel endless.

Heavier is the one you keep coming back to. The title hints at the lyric’s tangle of guilt and longing, but the music floats, riding a pulse of toms and hushed claps that bloom into a chorus without tipping into bombast. ODESZA love a well-placed vocal chop, and they use it here like punctuation, never stealing focus from the lead. Yellow House threads the melody with an easy sadness, the sort that hits hardest on a nighttime tram when the city thins out and you realise you have been staring at your reflection in the window for a few stops too long.

The title track sits at the heart of the record and underlines the pairing’s chemistry. There is a faint breath of tape hiss at the edges, a guitar figure that circles back on itself, and a halo of synth that lifts the hook just when the lyric turns in on itself. You can hear the duo resisting their stadium impulses, keeping the drums muted and the bass soft, like they know the point is to feel the crack in the voice, not the sub rattling your ribs. That restraint is the record’s quiet thrill.

Part of the appeal is how the two worlds meet. Yellow House comes from an indie tradition that prizes songcraft, and you can hear it in the bones of these tunes. ODESZA, ever the sculptors, shade those bones with colour and movement, adding field‑recorded rustle, ghosted backing harmonies and those clean, chiming percussive hits that have become a signature since In Return. The duo’s resume speaks for itself, from their A Moment Apart era Grammy nominations to the massive drumline that has become a calling card on tour, yet they show a veteran’s ear for giving a collaborator centre stage.

It is also a sensible bridge release, the kind collectors will seek out between the larger ODESZA albums on vinyl. If you are crate digging at a Melbourne record store and spot Flaws In Our Design vinyl tucked in the new arrivals, do not overthink it. This set begs for a front‑to‑back listen, preferably with the lights low and the needle noise becoming part of the atmosphere. And if your local is dry, it is the sort of title you keep an eye out for when you buy ODESZA records online, because small‑run collabs like this have a habit of vanishing. There is a reason ODESZA vinyl tends to hold its value. These records invite you to live with them.

What lingers after a few plays is the songwriting. The lyrics lean into small, human moments, and the performances avoid the gloss that can flatten a good idea. You catch the slide of a finger on a string, the breath before a line, the way a kick drum softens as if it has been wrapped in felt. That attention to feel is why the whole EP works. It is not trying to deliver festival peaks. It is tracing the outline of a mood you recognise but could not name, then letting it sit there long enough to become part of your day.

For fans who came in through the big tent of The Last Goodbye, this is a welcome detour. For those who follow the Foreign Family orbit, it is the kind of thoughtful collab that shows how flexible their aesthetic can be. However you enter, this is a keeper, a record that rewards a patient listen and feels made for a quiet night at home, stacks of vinyl records Australia style, kettle on, needle down.