IT’S ALL IN MY HEAD
Dear Yumi And The Weather: please forgive me. I confess, I’ve not listened to your music anywhere near enough before. I was wrong. I hope it’s not too late.
It’s not often I’m moved to write a line like that, but having just sat and listened straight through the new album It’s All In My Head (released on 23rdSeptember via Miohmi Records), it seemed like the best thing to do.
It’s a stunner of a record – moving seamlessly and coherently from the fuzzy punk of the opening song Imagine to the mellow, dusky shoegaze of close-out track Night Walk. On the way, you’re taken on a journey through all kinds of temperature and colour.
YATW is the project of Ruby Taylor, who recorded, mixed and produced the lot. It’s her first studio album for four years and is centred on and around YATW’s latest single Be Your Lover. This is a song overflowing with sexual and sensual energy. As she explains, “We are sexual creatures and it’s been suppressed through either some religions, society, and even ourselves because of confidence or/and lack of opportunities. This song is inspired by the beautiful and comfortable sexual encounters I had, and is a playful expression to represent these moments.”
You reach the track after three others on the album: Imagine, It’s All My Head (a raucous, synth-punky, raw-from-start-to-finish, exploration of emotional confusion) and Howl (a wonderfully layered, energetic song built around a clever refrain which plays on the phrase “air is …”). At this point, you feel like you’ve been grabbed by the hand and pulled along with YATW for a whirlwind tour, so the drop in tempo and the sense of moving to a slightly darker place feels luxuriant and welcome.
The next part of the record picks up the energy again, but there’s more variation and an added quirkiness – particularly on New Way, which features an addictive constant arpeggio in the background. Another highlight comes at track 8, Will You Ever Leave My Mind. There’s a gorgeous sweeping, epic feel to this one: imagine the immersive euphoria of Lanterns on the Lakecombined with the best singalong moment of a Wolf Alice ballad. This is the point you close your eyes and wish for the moment never to end.
But it does, and that’s no bad thing as it means hearing Start As You Mean To Go On – a full tempo, 80s-tinged number which brings you home to the slow shuffle of Night Walk (which fades out into the ether majestically).
It’s been quite a journey, but you’ll want to turn round and start it all again.
Don’t be like me – get this record on, and make sure Yumi And The Weather is a part of your musical life. And, as the nights draw in, try to get down to one of the album launch shows in London, Brighton and Portsmouth (details below).
FOLLOW YUMI AND THE WEATHER
FULL ALBUM TRACK LISTING
1. Imagine
2. It’s All In My Head
3. Howl
4. Be Your Lover
5. Finelines
6. New Way
7. Can You Tell
8. Will You Ever
9. Start As You Mean To Go On
10. Night Walk
YUMI AND THE WEATHER – 2022 LAUNCH SHOWS
10/11 – Signature Brew Haggerston, London
01/12 – Hope & Ruin, Brighton
08/12 – Edge of The Wedge, Portsmouth
Words by Phil Taylor
The songbird 