A couple of years ago during our album roundup for September 2018, there was an album that our cohort Rob recommended to me, Yves Tumor’s Safe at the Hands of Love, and after we recorded the episode, I instantly wanted to check that album out. Lo and behold, it ended up being one of my favorite albums of that year: a genre-bending experimental album that manages to pull together the styles of electronic, trance, R&B and even rock into one mold of extravagant music.
Now we’re at his fourth album to date and 2nd one on Warp Records (aka the home of such lauded acts from Danny Brown, Flying Lotus and Oneohtrix Point Never), and while I thought “Applaud” would be on here, it was just a loosie track. I’ll have more to say on the other singles that appeared on the album and more but as a whole, this album continues to be that genre-bending extravagant music we got from his last project.
“Gospel For A New Century” starts out the album with the rock elements kicking in, then following with the horns and drum samples. The single that really got me hyped is “Kerosene!” and this song just oozes everything sexy, from the guitar riffs, the drums, and the vocals from him and Diana Gordon. It has that raw energy of a Prince track and gets just as sexy and powerful.
I can be anything
Tell me what you need
I can be your baby in real life, sugar
I can live in your dreams
I can be where you need me to, baby
I can do anything
I can be what you tell me to be
I can be what you need
I can be your real life sugar
I can live in your dreams
Will you be my fantasy, little baby?
You’re just what I need
Can you be my fantasy, little baby?
You’re just what I need
I can be what you need, little baby
Just tell me what you need
As for the album as a whole, it continues to show the versatility and genre-bending moves that Yves excels at, as this project leans more into glam rock sounds, bohemian soul grooves, and even those R&B tinges in there. The vibes of “Hasdallen Lights” elicit a full blown psychedelia tone, “Strawberry Privilege” follows through with that ’70s sound, and the two-parter “Romanticist” & “Dream Palette” has that electronic rock sound much like his previous album. The times I heard “Super Stars” listening to this album gave me a lot of power rock vibes from the drums to the strumming guitars, and as it all comes together, it works.
Yves Tumor has done it again with experimentation, but this time, combining everything that is glam rock, R&B, soul and britpop into an amalgamation of an album that has more passion put into it than most albums released the last few years or so. If anything, this is a strong entry for my year-end best-of list.
FINAL VERDICT: Buy It. Yeah, this is the stuff that my musical heaven would sound like.
Heaven To A Tortured Mind is on Warp Records and is available on CD, Vinyl, Digital Download and streaming services. As always, you can support them via their Bandcamp.