Yves Tumor, Safe In The Hands of Love, Album Review

Yves Tumor

Safe In The Hands of Love

Album Review

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The way I discovered Yves Tumor (Sean L.Bowie) was from a friend who recommended a single from the artist released this year titled "Noid". Ever since then, I had been excited to find out if there will be anything further from Yves Tumor in 2018 and to my surprise, I somehow missed the release date of newest album from L.Bowie "Safe In The Hands of Love".

This latest release is the third full-length album, following 2015's "When Man Fails You" and 2016's "Serpent Music". As someone who has newly discovered Yves Tumor, It is difficult to say how this album compare to the earlier works. However, I've heard that this album has gained a lot more commercial popularity and could quite possibly become the album to bring Yves Tumour a giant leap forward.

When focusing solely on the album itself and its musicality, I actually love the diversity of the tracks and prefer that over something that has a more constructed flow in this case as I feel that it's meant to be a bit more unpredictable and furthermore heightens the surreal atmosphere of this album. It certainly is one of those albums that really emanates a sense of importance in a way. In other words, its very innovative in my opinion.

The album kicks off with what I would describe as a sort of instrumental intro titled "Faith In Nothing Except Salvation" which almost gives me this weirdly 80's movie vibe. But it feels very tense and would make for an awesome opener to a live set perhaps.

The next track; "Economy of Freedom", reminds me a little of Aphex Twin and shares that similar style of surreal electronic noise. As the track progresses, each of the musical elements seem to come together a little better and faint vocals can be heard towards the end resulting in a composition that feels a bit more like a coherent song. As much as I like the idea behind something that becomes more and more coherent as it progresses, I just feel that this song might've dragged on just a little too long and had me zoning out on occasion.

"Honesty" has a lot of dance and house music elements to it. And while I also feel that this drags on a little bit as well, it still makes for a somewhat enjoyable ambient dance track.

After this is the previously mentioned "Noid" that I love for its "Brit-pop" inspired vocals and grand sounding production which then progresses in to a much more dark and subliminal melody as the song goes on. i think it's both a masterfully crafted song and an absolute hit from Yves Tumor.

I also really love the next track; "Licking An Orchid" thanks to its beautiful guitar strings and a gorgeous yet melancholy atmosphere throughout. I also feel that L.Bowies sharp vocals contrast really well with James K's much smoother singing.

From one amazing song to another, "Lifetime" has a brilliant level of vastness that gives it this really spiritual aesthetic that one could compare to an artist such as Foals. It's one of those songs that you can really get immersed into that also has this kind of sense of urgency in the rhythm of the track. I love this one!

While feeling a little bit like an extended interlude, "Hope In Suffering (Escaping Oblivion & Overcoming Powerlessness)" does a marvellous job of unnerving the listener. The various sound effects such as screams, gunshot noises and buzzing flies really paint this nightmarish picture of death and destruction and almost gives off an apocalyptic vibe thanks to the distorted voice of L.Bowie that speaks to us in an almost spoken word fashion. It is definitely safe to say that this track succeeded in being a disturbing work of musical artwork.

"Recognising The Enemy" combines a soft acoustic guitar melody with echoing vocals to give us a very nocturnal sounding piece thats both beautiful and melancholy (much like "Licking An Orchid") but also carries through a similar level of vastness as "Lifetime".

The penultimate track "All The Love We Have Now" reverts back somewhat to the more electronic elements heard in the earlier tracks, but this one might just be my favourite of that respective bunch thanks to a really high level of grandeur that is carried through in the track.

The album then concludes with the final track "Let The Lioness In You Flow Freely" which is an incredibly explosive and dynamic track. And while I feel that this is a very odd choice for a final song, it does end the album with a bang at least. I think it is still a really awesome track to listen to regardless but once again, I feel that it may be a little over-extended.

In conclusion, I really love this album and have a feeling that it is really going to be one that grows on me immensely with time. By far the best thing about it is that it is memorable and will certainly be one of the first albums that comes to mind when looking back on this year. My biggest criticism would be that I would've preferred a wider range of songs with a smaller duration rather than   only 10 tracks (a lot of which seem to be stretched out too long).

If you're like how I was a couple of month's back and didn't know about this artist until now, I strongly recommend this album (especially for someone who is looking for something a little different).

Thank you for reading.

BBP