It's highly unlikely that that album cover will go down as one of the all-time classics, but it's bloody freaky and I'm not going to look at it for any longer than is necessary to publish it with this review. So The Yawns then, here's info for all you fact fans out there (and we all love a good fact or two). They're from Glasgow, there's five of them and they recorded this album in a bedroom studio, only beginning gigging a moth before its release (it was originally out on tape in December) and have since got a few more shows under their belt, including playing with Ty Segall; they'll also be playing with Dirty Beaches this month, so it's looking good.
This debut album is self-titled (incidentally, they're already working on a follow-up) and as they correctly stated on the press release, it sounds like the work of a band with way more experience than they have. And recorded in a bedroom? Do they all kip in Abbey Road or something? For a homemade debut this is up there with the best we've heard in the last year or two. These are proper, very good songs with proper, very good production, arrangements and general very goodness all round. We're looking at a guitar band here, playing indie-type songs, only adding subtle additions that make them better than you'd expect. And this is taking into account the already high standard of songwriting.
A track like 'Summers Wasted' would do just fine, but bring in those gorgeous backing-vocals in the chorus and it turns to magic; the yelps in 'Jean Thumb' achieve a similar feat. That typical Glasgow jangle comes to the fore on 'Calling Colin Through A Wall', only the song's better than most of their contemporaries manage. They successfully to go all Velvet Underground & Nico on the ace 'Butterfleyes' and create classic indiepop with 'I Win'. The Yawns even do that whole Glasgow indie half-spoken narrative type song without it being a cliche on 'Gav's Memory', this is also aided by those backing vocals. We'd go as far as to say these are the band's secret weapon. Maybe it will always be like this, or maybe they're just on a roll. But everything these guys touch seems to turn to gold. An excellent debut.
The Yawns' website
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