Genre : Alternative Rock with a tint of Shoegaze
Origin : United States
Official site : > - here - <
Yuca's music is a galaxy better than you would assume by the everyday average textual comparison charts randomer music journalists would put the band amidst a gauntlet with. (Every journalist - including the music critic - has the book of her/his life in her/his OH!, so fanciful soul - which most often is the best place to hold that book as hostage at.)
Yuca is the picture perfect (soft) rock variant of the music of superb Norvegian synth pop band A-ha - believe it or not, Morten & Co. wrote more songs than "Take on me", and their catalog is composed of exquisite sonic imagination and musical vision. Yuca takes this musical ethos all the way though to the more beefy registers of the narrative silence massacre spectrum, as the aforementioned A-ha hardly ever took hold a guitar so far, - or made sure to sedate the guitarist right after - and never even had to. Yuca, on the other hand, takes this trademark gloomy A-ha stance - there are gloomy A-ha songs, and there are even gloomier A-ha songs - and arms it with guitars. The effect sometimes indeed reveals a tint of Muse - minus the hypertranssexual "look I got no balls, mommy!" affectations, luckily -, or outright copies it without shame in an attempt to appeal to the Muse audience, more on that later.
But I have good news for you, too! Throughout the verse structures, I would go as far as to mention a Type O' Negative similarity, and that I intend as a compliment. Check out track 2 for this splendid effect - Peter Steele approves of this verse structure. It is his, essentially, and it still is Yuca's, and this is why it is so beautiful. Read on to know more about the disc. You know that story, when U2's Bono started clapping, and told : "Every time I clap, someone in Africa dies." Then someone from the audience : "Then why don't you stop clapping?" Timeless.
The spin is not hard to digest at all, and there are occasions when you find the band in the act of delivering not from inspiration, but from mere routine, as they have an understanding of the mechanics of the type of music they are playing. Track number 4, "I'm Alive, She Said", is an example of this routinous deliverance : the track is constructed using a Yuca soft rock song construction chart, and, while there is nothing wrong with that, there is not much to be surprised by, either. It is not as bad as Iced Earth using the exact same riffs on multiple albums, but it is in the same league. Notice how the lead singer imitates the vocal mannerisms of Morten Harket here - I do not intend this as a criticism, because he is doing a good job with it, and I would not go as far as to tell that he sounds exactly like Morten Harket - there is no more devastating thing someone could tell you if you are a singer, then - "dude, you sound exactly like xy!". Then you have eliminated your identity. Congratulations, you fail successfully!
The album has its premiere field of operations situated in mid-tempo builds, spiced up nicely by the competent mid-range singing. I already have compared the lead singer to Morten Harket, but I feel there is some due flattery on my part yet, because the vocal delivery usually has much more heft under it, in the world of Yuca. Morten is a superb singer, but he is a mellow singer - Matt Brock, the Yuca lead singer guy shows off the hard rocky balls more often, - without the alpha male testosterone-tirade nonsense, thank God & Co. - and the effect is quite competent and convincing. Track number 6 is a fantastic example of how he interchanges between Morten Harket mode and All Balls Out Heft Yuca mode - this, actually, is one of the best rock songs I have heard this year, hell, it's one of the best fucking rock songs I have ever heard - who is old enough to listen to hard rock with a poker face? - and you know I do not say things like this easily. Take heed and bear witness to the lead singer's, Matt Brock's seamless transitions between his chest level comfort zone AND his upper mixed voice that soar herein, where he remains totally comfortable and powerful without losing anything from the charisma of this hefty/sexy/powerful mid-range singing voice. What? Are you offended by the word "sexy"? Why? Who would challenge the notion that Elvis Presley has a sexy voice? The song itself is quite badass, too, one that reminds me of Billy Idol's "Shock to the System," sedated though by a "Muse" poison pill. The effect and the delivery is tremendous!
With "Skeletal Desires", Yuca seeks juuuuust a little verrrry very and super-desperately hard to score Muse charms - the structure is the picture perfect genetic copy of the Muse song in which the guy suffers a nervous breakdown, because his girlfriend allegedly performs acts of an intentionally sexual nature in rhythmic fashion with another individual armed and motivated by an erect penis. Oh sexism, your only saving grace is that you never have to come up with new ideas, now that women ARE existent!
The track "Skeletal Desires" - oh really? You sure I can not bring some warm flesh along???,,, Ph0000leeez?? - is an almost disgustingly/servitudously successful copy song, but one the Yuca band chooses to humiliate itself with. The ensemble has a full fledged, unique identity, - see track number 6 - and already reigns free of the need to serve out such lousy mainstream expectations as a willingness to conform to something that already has been done so powerfully - who would challenge the notion that the Muse song in question destroys rectum Godzilla style - already. I would go as far as to say that the song - Skeletal Desires - is very well made, yet it is so embarr - ASS - ingly desperate to bow down to Muse, that truly, all you can give for it is a facial expression of eternal pity supported by a crocodile teardrop, and I am willing to give much more - no one ever felt good when given pity - when I hear the songs on the disc that are operated by a legitimate identity.
The lyrical content on this spin is fixated on the highly illegal rhyme pair : "fire" and "desire", and this is a pair that was embarrassing to use in 1962, even, so I definitely admire the rebellious spirit exhibited herein. This admiration is due/proper embellishment to entertain my 8433rd nervous breakdown these "fire" and "desire" rhyme pairs induce in me with. Okay, I admit it, I have used this vastly overused and placid excuse of a rhyme pair once, too, but with intended covert delicacy! Which I just blew. (But only to rebel against my own blighted convictions, if any of those are existent.)
A solid record all the way, with only 1 filler song - track 4 -, and only 1 attempt of desperation, that which though succeeds masterfully - Skeletal Desires, the Muse-ladyboy song. Good jaub! You can pick your identity up at the information desk! This cynicism is murdered in superbly creative and delightful way though whenever I hear my personal favorite on the disc, track number 6, which comes with extremely solidly delivered singing and intricate harmonic anatomy, both elements taking place on multiple sonic zones! Yuca is a band you have to take seriously, and they are sooooo much better than U2! Every band is better than fucking U2.
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