{"id":10336,"date":"2016-05-01T23:34:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T23:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=10336"},"modified":"2017-09-11T21:40:49","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T21:40:49","slug":"yuck-stranger-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2016\/05\/01\/yuck-stranger-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuck :: Stranger Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-10339\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/yuck1-500x500.jpg\" alt=\"yuck1\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Ben Waldman<br \/>\n<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Yuck burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut, there was hardly a review that didn\u2019t hail the band as the reincarnation of Pavement. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yuck<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> marked one of the most solid and assured entrances into the indie rock world in years.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 2013s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glow and Behold<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> signaled a shift to a more ambient sound, and it was also generally well received. But critics have been quick to pan Yuck\u2019s latest album, viewing it as a step back. This type of view doesn\u2019t give the band enough credit. Looking at an album as a segment in a collection instead of a unique piece of art restricts the reach of the music. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stranger Things<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is obviously different than the first two albums in Yuck\u2019s discography. It takes more risks, and shows that the band is finding their strengths, building ably on the sound of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glow<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> without disregarding the music that first got the band recognition as the rebirth of the 90s. Since 2011, Yuck has been through a lot. Original lead singer Daniel Blumberg left and Max Bloom, the lead guitarist, took over vocal duties. \u00a0This album compensates for that by having longer guitar interludes, notably on \u201cI\u2019m OK.\u201d The track spends about a minute and a half building to a cathartic finish with light guitar plucking. It\u2019s in these moments when Yuck shines: the loudness of their quiet followed by the overwhelming power of their noise. \u201cYr Face\u201d also fills its run time with similar build-up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Yuck is still embodied by 90s spirit, it\u2019s about time that they stop being defined by critics by the band\u2019s early influences. At certain points, Yuck sounds less like Pavement than does their contemporaries like DIIV or Girls. Listen to \u201cAs I Walk Away,\u201d the seventh track on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stranger Things<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and try to tell me it doesn\u2019t sound like Alvvays\u2019 standout track \u201cParty Police.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The point is, though Yuck sounds somewhat different now than they did in 2011, they still sound great. And after all, is sameness and uniformity really a trait that any band should strive for? Consider <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stranger Things<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for what it is: an album by a very good band trying to make music that feels different. If they wanted to sound the same as they did five years ago, or even three years ago, Yuck would have called their latest \u201cNormal Things.\u201d Embrace the strangeness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mam\u00e9 Records, yuck.bandcamp.com)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ben Waldman When Yuck burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut, there was hardly a review that didn\u2019t hail the band as the reincarnation of Pavement. Yuck marked one of the most solid and assured entrances into the indie rock world in years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10774,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10336\/revisions\/10774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}