Yves Tumor – ‘Praise A Lord…’ album review: an eternally ambitious and tremendous return
In a world full of carbon copies and pastiche, it can sometimes be challenging for musicians to stand out from the crowd — but no such problem exists for Yves Tumor. Sean Bowie has been around for a while now, and with each release, they’ve evolved, creating indefinable music that is, somewhat strangely, totally their own.
Comprised of stark juxtapositions, Tumor’s work is sublime yet unnerving, equally as prone to emotive melodies as it is to dissonant textures, with moments of clear messaging counterbalanced by others that make the listener do the work. In many ways, the quintessential postmodern artist, their new album, Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), takes these juxtapositions up a notch, producing another blinder. If they hadn’t already made it clear, the future is Tumor’s for the taking.
A multifaceted body of work comprised of 12 tracks, Praise A Lord… is undoubtedly the most complete record the American has released to date, with their penchant for a range of genres from post-punk to experimental electronic pushed to the very limit. As with all Tumor’s other work, the new project is an aesthetic record, this time produced by Noah Goldstein of Frank Ocean and Rosalía fame and mixed by shoegaze master Alan Moulder. Simply mentioning those names conveys the profound aural delights and surprises found in the record. There are glistening pop moments with mass appeal, whilst others are dreamlike, extracted straight from Tumor’s imagination, creating a hypnotic trip immersing the willing. Such is the nature of Yves Tumor; they toe the line to the absolute maximum.
Elsewhere, contributions from long-time collaborators Chris Greatti, Yves Rothman and Rhys Hastings have helped prop up Tumor’s clear vision, ensuring they don’t stray too far from themselves. With that, the likes of Ecco2K and Kïda have also added elements to the eclectic collage that is Praise A Lord…, helping it to push the boundaries even further. Evidently understanding that this collaborative and non-linear form is how music is shifting, Tumor has assembled a record that continues to surprise, with a host of melodies, textures, lyrics, and other components still to be found on the fifth listen. A complete grower of a record, there’s such an array of exhibits on offer that it’s hard to heed the scope of its magnitude in just a couple of sittings. There are instantaneous highlights, though. Namely, the hypnotic opener ‘God Is A Circle’, the grunge-inflected ‘Meteora Blues’, the infectious ‘Echolalia’ and the exquisite recent single ‘Heaven Surrounds Us Like A Hood’.
The latter is the finest moment on the record. Complete with one of Tumor’s best basslines, a brazen synth line, thunderous drums, and a stellar thought-provoking guitar line that emerges from the depths. The material then briefly metamorphoses into an ambient piece before the band takes the melody in a different direction. A perfect bridge between the heady leanings of Tumor’s early work and the more direct efforts of his recent era, it is hard not to wonder what delights they have in store following Praise A Lord…, given that their grasp of songwriting and the studio is second to none. It’s three-dimensional.
Elsewhere, the looped breaths that carry ‘God Is A Circle’ is vintage Yves Tumor, with post-punk and dance textures creating what will go down as one of their signature pieces, with the bassline and glitchy guitar line that pops in and out energising proceedings. Following this, ‘Meteora Blues’ and ‘Echolalia’ offer two of the more contagious pieces on the album. The former starts with a heady, reverb-drenched acoustic guitar line, plucked straight from the 1990s before a filtered beat adds suspense and brings us in. The crunch of the guitars adds an uplifting edge to the track and offsets the melodic nature of the verses in a tune that stylistically harks back to Tumor’s 2018 debut, Safe in the Hands of Love.
As for ‘Echolalia’, the song is simply inescapable. The reverb-heavy bassline, Tumor’s breathy lyrics that murmur something about looking “so good” and being treated “like a dog”, and the epileptic textures have kept me revisiting since it was released in January. Another track that slightly harks back to the 2018 debut, Tumor’s penchant for sampling other people in candid conversation re-emerges here, with someone offering an account of love and not wanting “anyone to depend on me”. As well as working musically with the bassline, it also causes a moment of serious introspection.
I don’t often say this, but this record has no real downside. Other highlights include the cacophonous indie sleaze/dance-punk of ‘Operator’, and the goth sensibility of ‘Lovely Sewer’. The dark majesty of the dancey instrumental ‘Purified by the Fire’ also has to be mentioned, with it a rumbling, sinister moment that begs to be on a film soundtrack.
Bringing the curtain down on proceedings is ‘Ebony Eyes’, an anthemic cut by far the most traditional of the bunch. Being more conventional is a good thing, though. It’s compelling here simply because of how much it stands out. The string section is about as flawless as you can get without being cheesy, with the same applying to the chorus. Props must also go to choir The Samples, who imbue this piece with an angelic edge, making the climax one of Tumor’s finest as they dovetail with Tumor and the strings.
A tremendous return. Praise A Lord… sets Yves Tumor up for the next chapter of their career in the best of ways.
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