Yeasayer’s sophomore release, Odd Blood, is already being widely tipped as one of the breakthrough records of 2010. It’s not hard to see why – it’s an infectiously upbeat affair of Day-Glo psychedelia and expansive, blissed-out electronica.

Showing a sense of adventure and maintaining an experimental edge without ever being hard work, it’s a sonic playground with something of the abandon of former tour partners and fellow Brooklyn residents MGMT.

Its key songs include the spacey epic Ambling Alp with its encouraging refrain of “Stick up for yourself son!” and Rome, which sounds like pop music from some futuristic utopia. I Remember (“I remember the smell of your skin forever”) is another shimmering portrait of bliss and freedom.

“I think it reflects a lot of the positivity that life has,” says Ira Wolf Tuton, one third of the group. Describing it as a very personal record, he also credits the group’s improved production skills with adding to Odd Blood’s joyful feel. “It’s an album that has so much more clarity than our first one, you just hear certain licks and tones that you didn’t before.”

The new songs were recorded in legendary music town Woodstock, which Ira says was chosen less for its “mysteriousness and lure” and more out of convenience. The group had sought somewhere that was isolated and rural enough that they could make a racket late into the night but that was relatively close to their adopted home in New York City. But Woodstock proved an inspired choice, “an interesting little corner of the world”, peopled by an assorted casts of “freaks, wizards and sorcerers”.

The three-month sojourn in Woodstock also saw the group stay, purely by chance, in a house owned by a drummer who had played on records by the likes of Elvis Costello and Tears for Fears, and who had collected a formidable range of recording equipment which includes some rare gear that dates back to the 1970s.

“We kind of constructed our own studio there as well,” Ira explains. “We had our equipment augmented by his, just trying stuff out and experimenting. It ended up being a pretty unique and fortunate environment to record in.”

Yeasayer are very much studio enthusiasts (Ira says he would gladly spend all his time recording if financial constraints allowed for it) but make the most of their time on the road. They’re currently working with long-term collaborator Ben Phelan on visuals for their upcoming tour, which stretches until May, and are feverishly rehearsing the new material, which Ira explains was written with an eye to making the songs fun and danceable for the long haul on the tour circuit.

Having played at the Guggenheim museum last year, Yeasayer have a penchant for more ornate spaces and have half-jokingly talked of their ambition to play in churches designed by Charles Wren. “I like to play in places that were made for music,” Ira says. “I find a lot of venues you play in are designed to sell liquor and the sound and the visual part of it is an afterthought.”

With an Australian tour likely in the second half of the year, it seems only a matter of time before Yeasayer’s blend of trippy visuals and soaring psychadelia takes over a purpose-built music venue near you.

Odd Blood is out February 5 on Spunk.