-=- SHGZ -=-
* Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal *
ARTIST..: Yeule
ALBUM...: Softscars
GENRE...: Electronic
STYLE...: Indietronica, Dream Pop, Shoegaze, Noise Pop
STYLE...: Glitch Pop, Indie Pop, Neo-Psychedelia
YEAR....: 2023
LABEL...: Ninja Tune
COUNTRY.: USA
PLACE...: Los Angeles, CA
BORN....: December 16, 1997, Singapore
VOCALS..: English
ENCODER.: FLAC 1.3.1 -8 -V
BITRATE.: 877 kbps avg
QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / 2 channels
SOURCE..: CD
TRACKS..: 12
SIZE....: 252.76 MB
URL..: https://www.facebook.com/yeulemusic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softscars
https://www.yeule.jp
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yeule-softscars
https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/yeule-soft-scars-review-tracklist-lyrics-3501719
https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/albums/yeule-softscars-delves-into-emotional-wounds
- TRACKLIST
1 X w X 2:25
2 Sulky Baby 4:34
3 Softscars 3:26
4 4ui12 2:43
5 Ghosts 3:40
6 Dazies 4:24
7 Fish In The Pool 2:31
8 Software Update 3:36
9 Inferno 3:14
10 Bloodbunny 2:42
11 Cyber Meat 3:06
12 Aphex Twin Flame 3:38
Total Playtime: 39:59
Yeule / Nat Cmiel (born December 16, 1997 as Natasha Yelin Chang) is an
electronic & ambient artist from Singapore.
*
- Yeule chooses life, sweetens up their sound, and drops pop AOTY for the third time running. -
After two albums of waif-like shimmerings steeped in dissociation and
depression, it's almost shocking to hear what a difference a brighter outlook
and apparent stability have made for Yeule. Dubbed a healing record, their
latest effort softscars surfaces triumphantly from the traumatic nadir
documented only last year on the masterpiece Glitch Princess, kicking down
the walls of bedroom space within its opening seconds and brimming with
sunlight from thereon out. Opener "x w x" elicits one sharp exhalation after
another with its howling guitars and walls of shrieks, as cathartic as
anything Yeule has made, but a good deal less morbid; the track's breakneck
pacing and tearaway energy are an unsustainable rush, yet its momentum seems
to grasp outward rather than cave inward. So it goes for the rest of the
album: these songs embrace life head-on, and while they are hardly reticent
to explore uncomfortable subject matter ("software update" features a
particularly bruising set of images), there's a new confidence behind it that
never feels anything less than affirmative. Lead single "sulky baby" eschews
angst entirely in a leisurely swoon; the one-two album highlight of "inferno"
and "bloodbunny" splits the atom with monosyllabic chants, each utterance a
glimpse at the kind of intimate emotional sanctuary few would open to the
world; late-game banger "cyber meat" cranks the album's exuberance to
hyperactive heights and throws down a barrage of lyrical calling cards that,
for perhaps the first time, scan less as do-or-die performative
self-manifestations, and more as simple acts of playfulness. It's astonishing
how luridly Yeule maps the cracks in their own mental health across the
album, yet I can hardly imagine anyone else radiating so much joy and
vitality at every turn in doing so. They confront largely the same demons as
ever with vast newfound strength, and to call softscars 'cleansing' as such
would be a gross understatement.
This is all the more remarkable for how the record showcases their most
cohesive and potentially most versatile stylistic palette to date. Returning
fans will find the likes of "softscars", "ghosts" and "bloodbunny" full of
familiar glitchy flourishes, and "inferno" within a stone's throw of
Serotonin II's understated reveries, but there's a much more 'physical'
presence to the music here. Yeule delivers their least modulated vocal tracks
to date and complements their ultra-digital production with a full arsenal of
guitars: the verses of "software update" and "aphex twin flame" are
practically unplugged by their usual standards, while "dazies"' rollicking
shoegaze and "software update"'s clamorous bridge both play like a fresh
vitalisation of the dissociated plug-in warfare landmarked by the Downfall of
the Neon Youth e-rock crowd. The heft and concrete presence of these fresh
touches are entirely appropriate given the flush in this album's cheeks and
the rush of blood in its veins. I've seen "ghosts"' zany verses and lilting
climax compared to the classic refrain of Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for
a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl", a superficially accurate similarity that touches
a deeper theme: that Yeule now packs the same warmth as perhaps the most
infamously maximalist hugs-and-smiles collective in music tells you all you
need about the level they're operating on at this point. Lord knows where
they'll go from here.
*
Nat Cmiel's music has gradually evolved from ethereal ambient pop to more
abrasive and dystopian glitch-pop with uncomfortably vulnerable lyrics
examining mental health issues. On softscars, the artist's third album as
yeule, they dive into shoegaze, grunge, and punk influences, creating
heavier, more cathartic music in an attempt to bridge their artistic persona
with their real-life identity. Opener "x w x" is a jarring re-introduction to
the artist, mixing noisy guitars and unhinged screaming with gentle strings
and nearly bubblegummy pop hooks, sounding like a mess of contradictions on
paper but absolutely nailing its execution. The softly swaying dream pop tune
"sulky baby" finds yeule continuing to express dissatisfaction with their
body, while distorted guitars smolder without becoming fully engulfed in
flames. A good portion of the album incorporates well-timed glitches into
chiming alt-rock hooks, made all the more disorienting by lyrics about bodily
harm and self-disgust. While there's a lot of disturbing imagery and
challenging sonics in these songs, there's still gleeful and innocent
elements to them, like the skipping cadences of "ghosts," or the affectionate
sentiments of "software update" and "aphex twin flame." Yet even these are
qualified or compromised -- "software update" describes feeling trapped in
someone's phone, as yeule responds to an "I love you" with "you said that
like you were programmed to." The pumping ambient house beats of "inferno"
propel a rush of memories about a wilted relationship, with yeule still
willing to do anything for their ex. If "bloodbunny" was a film, it would be
best described as a gross-out romance, and that icky playfulness carries into
the feverish electro-punk of "cyber meat." While it's not always as easy to
listen to as yeule's previous recordings, softscars contains some of their
strongest songwriting and most daring sound design, and feels like the most
honest expression of their vision to date.
*
You could be forgiven if you'd assumed that electronic musician yeule was
just the latest upgrade in the music industry's quest to build a virtual pop
star. After all, that was the goal of Nat Cmiel, the very human person behind
the decade old pseudonym, who yearned to be a self-aware AI.
But a funny thing happened on their way to the singularity. Singapore-born,
London-based, Cmiel reconnected with their physical self and started
processing their gender dysphoria and eating disorder. As they recently told
Pitchfork, "I want to feel like I'm real."
That desire shines through softscars, yeule's third album, in both subject
and form. From the thrilling opener "x w x" through the slow build of closer
"aphex twin flame" Cmiel drops the facade and lets listeners into the world
they live in, rather than the one they've constructed.
At times it can be difficult to parse exactly what they're singing about.
Songs like "softscars" and "sulky baby" can be read as the ups and downs of a
relationship, though whether that's with a person, a digital avatar or
themselves is left open to interpretation. In that way, Cmiel plays things
both ways, offering up more of themselves for public consumption than ever
before, yet still leaving the door open to their fans grafting their
experiences onto Cmiel's.
The music - a mix of digital sound with electric and acoustic guitars and
live (or at least live sounding) drums - complements their newfound humanist
approach to songwriting. 2022's Glitch Princess shattered pop music into a
million little pieces. Here Cmiel has glued things back together, but the
cracks are still visible in the way they pair genre tropes.
Unlike artists like 100 Gecs who thrive on the cacophony that comes from
slamming disparate sounds together, Cmiel seems more interested in making
those incongruent pairs fit together; big pop-punk guitars colliding into
jagged industrial rhythms, slow acoustic guitars swimming in ambient digital
noise. "x w x," is the record's most Gecs-ian moment. But that soon fades
into a more lush and dreamy sound that could be described as pop in certain
circles.
Ultimately softscars is a record about self-acceptance and the rocky road
that's forever under construction that leads there. It's a process that's
taken its toll on yeule, but, as the name suggests, the wounds are starting
to heal.
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-=-=-==-=-=-
Shoegaze
is a genre of alternative rock that
originated in the late 80s. The genre is very
difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music
within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its
shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and
textural distortion that create
a tranquil, opaque
feeling.
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