It feels like a lifetime since Yuck released their kinetic and critically acclaimed self-titled debut album.
In five short years the four-piece has undergone some dramatic changes; in 2013 lead singer and guitarist Daniel Blumberg left, prompting guitarist Max Bloom to take over vocal duties whilst the band enlisted Ed Hayes to replace Blumberg on guitar. Later that year Yuck released their dreamy, but ultimately vapid second record ‘Glow & Behold’.
After a tumultuous couple of years, they returned to Bloom’s parents’ basement (where ‘Yuck’ was recorded) and tracked their third album at their own pace. ‘Stranger Things’ sees Yuck reclaiming their juvenescent vigor, but it also displays a promising maturation in the band’s temperament.
The delightfully crunchy opener ‘Hold Me Closer’ begins with a fuzzy big beat trudge which sounds straight out of the nineties noise rock scene. It immediately hits and sounds like a quintessential Yuck song. Bumbling melodic guitar leads sharpen and escalate the murky dive bar crunch as the bandmates gracefully fall into an arpeggiated guitar coda.
‘Cannonball’ is similar in timbre but boasts a heavy shot of jumpy adrenaline thanks to Jonny Rogoff’s thunderous drums and Mariko Doi’s rumbling bass. For each track, the duo lay down a steady foundation that sets the tone, while Bloom and Hayes’ guitar scribbles illuminate each song with a melodic flair.
Doi takes over vocal duties on the wistfully gorgeous standout ‘As I Walk Away’, its feathery Americana-jangle lightens up the loud, weighted feel of the previous tracks, but it maintains the record’s momentum by remaining elegiacally melodic. Following suit, ‘Like a Moth’ and ‘Swirling’ display Yuck at their most exquisitely beautiful. The former has a creamy, relaxing glow, while the latter’s hypnotic chime has an understated beauty that evokes shades of Yo La Tengo. These dreamy tracks stick with you and feel distinctly richer compared to ‘Glow and Behold’s faint daydreams.
Noise rock and shoegaze elements are entrenched in nearly everything that Yuck creates, but on ‘Stranger Things’ they are beginning to experiment with the arrangement and presentation of these stylistic sounds. ‘I’m OK’ is a delightfully crunchy bite of doo-wop styled garage rock, but its wistful light instrumental bridge breathes unexpected life into track. Throughout the album, Bloom’s songwriting tightens in structure as it expands in influence. The woozy nickelodeon-tinged ‘Only Silence’ brims with a vibrant cartoonish hook and features a carefree AM hip-shake chorus. Elsewhere, the band flirts with pop punk on the chugging and mosh-pit friendly ‘Hearts in Motion’.
Following their previous album’s precedent, Yuck close ‘Stranger Things’ with a trudging guitar epic, but ‘Yr Face’ has a quiet aura of confidence around it. Bloom and Hayes’ guitars still crush with fat crunch, but they’ve become more purposeful players. The anxiety of their first record and the occasional passiveness of their sophomore record have now matured into a workmanlike self-assurance.
Since their debut, Yuck have always seemed fully formed in terms of their identity. Never shying away from their influences, the band had impressive melodic chops and an infectious energy right from the off, but you had to wonder if they would ever expand beyond that nineties-tinged artistic prose.
‘Glow and Behold’s’ shoegaze boarded on pastiche, but on ‘Stranger Things’ it seems Yuck are beginning to settle into themselves. These four will always be nineties kids and revivalist at heart, so the new album isn’t a strikingly different sounding Yuck record, but it does have a distinct feel. With all the challenges that Bloom and company have faced, they’ve gained a valuable sense of perspective.
‘Stranger Things’ might not feel as vital as Yuck’s debut album, but it is the most vital record in the band’s career because instead of looking into the past, Yuck are starting to look toward the future.
