Bakar, Will You Be My Yellow?, EP Review


Bakar
Will You Be My Yellow?
EP Review


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If you haven't yet heard of UK artist Bakar, I would definitely recommend him. After discovering his debut album Badkid in 2018, I was captivated by his versatility and the moody atmospheres that he created in many of Badkid's tracks.

Things went a little quiet in terms of me listening to Bakar since that album. There was the halloween track he released; "Dracula", and the single released in march; "Chill", but neither sounded quite as interesting to me on the surface.

However, my attention shifted back to Bakar after listening to his recent single "Hell N Back", which In my opinion, is one of the sweetest tracks to released this year. But little did I know, that this track would be the herald of this bran new EP from Bakar.

I remember that a selection of tracks on Badkid felt aesthetically similar to the artist King Krule, especially when considering Krule's most recent album, 2017's The Ooz. In the caseof this EP, Bakar seems to be going further in this direction, with the majority of the tracks being very moody and mellow. This is a creative choice which I for one can appreciate, and ultimately this helped me enjoy Would You Be My Yellow? almost instantly.

It is rather brief in runtime, as EP's usually are, with a runtime of around 15 minutes. However, it still feels quite substantial somehow. Bakar allows us a little bit of context with the opening track "Yllw", which is a spoken word piece which seems to tell a story of somebody the artist himself loved dearly, before dugs "ruined it all". Linking up with the previously mentioned "Hell N Back", Bakar goes into further detail about this one person in this warm and joyful love song.

The last four tracks are a lot gloomier, and really push that comparison to King Krule that I made earlier. I especially love the third track "Ghosts" with its gorgeous acoustic guitar melody and echoing vocals. It has such a cold atmosphere, and serves as a great contrast to "Hell N Back"

I also have to give a shout out to Dominic Fike for his feature on the fantastically subtle and BROCKHAMPTON-esque "Stop Selling Her Drugs", which is also really beginning to grow on me, despite this being my first da of listening to the EP.

I truly didn't think there'd be an EP this year to top Lil Nas X's "7". However, I truly think Bakar has gone and done it. He has managed to cram an albums worth of atmosphere and narrative into a 6 track EP which only lasts a quarter of an hour.

Truly well done to Bakar for another fantastic project.


Thank you for reading,

Booth Boy

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