A stunning collection of moments strung together on a chain of pop nous. Gorgeous.
Music
We Are the People chops along at a healthy pace, and before long you may begin to notice your foot has been coerced into tapping along. Unless of course you are encountering Bucko’s five minute slab of uplifting trance at a venue, in which case you won’t be reading this because you’ll already be dancing.
In Holy Ghost, we have an extraordinary single. It seems to want to ignore conventional structure (and conventional wisdom) to be a stand-alone sonic delight.
The energy of the song rises up slowly but in a rhythmically entrancing manner, seeming to wash over you like a wave, the bigger moments crashing into action before the sound drags back out to sea – leaving you with only that whisper of an idea.
Sounding like it could have been culled from Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods album (in a good way), What You Didn’t Say is a complex and satisfying single that benefits hugely from the way that Alan’s voice meshes with itself to create a warm and satisfying pad of sound that elevates the chorus to something quite delicious.
Lorine Chia has a sound that is undeniably hers, and the way she floats through the stages of the track, with softness yet intention, is beautifully captivating; and genuinely refreshing amidst today’s musical landscape.
Simple Life is beautifully set-up, bringing together a blues-rock backdrop with Kirby’s own expressive and lightly raspy vocals, mixing in a touch of almost doo-wop style backing vocals – the finish is organic yet crisp and clean enough to really let you blast it at volume to immersive results.
“The song explodes into its final field, reverting back to this idea of the land of hope and glory, these references to death and suffering; the music is heavy and chaotic, vibrant and loud, and the vocal offers a similar level of madness and desperation as the words pour through.”
Patience and peace rarely play a role in modern life, but they should, and perhaps they must as times move faster and grow noisier and more impactful on our every day existence. Enter YIMBY, these compositions, and the choice to temporarily free yourself from the manic downpour of information.
Leading with a classically smooth and hopeful pop backdrop, a creatively meandering synth riff but one that feels notably more complex than the average pop offering, along with a light beat and a quickly emotional, compelling vocal, The Hearts Got Memory shines brightly as a retro pop classic with passion and intention.
New American Hustle sees producer and multi-instrumentalist Ian Smith collaborate with a host of superb vocalists, amidst an array of hard-hitting and almost genre-free compositions; the likes of which pour through with precisely the level of grit, melody and rhythm required to lift you up and provide that perfectly alternative escapism that modern life craves.
The track works hard structurally, and Annika as a leading lady works equally hard to maintain that level of smooth & simple good times. The song is not overly optimistic or loud, far from it – there’s a subtlety to the warmth & enjoyment it drives with, and this is a big part of why it works so well & is likely to appeal on a much broader level.