Yuck
Fat Possum Records
There aren’t enough hours in the day to generously give listen to all of the music that begs to be given breath. We’re in the era of multi-tasking, so why haven’t we found a way to listen to more than one piece of music simultaneously? We’ve got two ears, let’s utilize them!
For instance, when listening to the debut album by London youths Yuck, I could also be listening to all of the bands whose styles and sounds they’ve adopted as their own. The album is a damn fine release, and far too addicting to eject, but my brain is now aching to spin some ’90s records I haven’t visited in years!
There is no one defining band from that decade that sums up the influence of the sound of Yuck, it’s more of an indiscriminate tasting of all things indie/alternative from the early years of that millennium-ending decade. When they want to stretch the limits of distortion on their fuzzed-out guitars (“The Wall,” “Holing Out”), they do so with confidence beyond their years (average age: 20). When they want to unplug and slow the mood down to a coffeehouse pace (“Suicide Policeman,” “Suck,” “Shook Down”), they truly excel. Channeling Elliot Smith and even a little bit of the better side of Gin Blossoms, the acoustic tunes are the key to this album’s success. It’s in these that the band becomes more than a substitute for old Matador or Sub Pop Records releases and, instead, a band deserving of both of your ears – your Archers of Loaf, Vaselines, and Afghan Whigs albums can wait.
