News Yawn

Landfill might be dead, but there’s still a definite lust for life affirming indie music. YAWN might not be the kind of name you’d expect from a band trying to earn that title, but that’s just how life goes sometimes. Based in Chicago, you can almost see Grizzly Bear with their ethereal charm and Vampire Weekend’s preppy polo shirts looming in the background, offering direction - though not completely pulling the strings.

There are four of them, and you get the impression that even they don’t quite understand what they’ve managed to achieve. Their official website is a juxtaposition in itself - a chillwave style close-up of some grass contrasting sharply with the frightening, nightmarish notebook drawing of a young girl that fronts their dreamy five track EP. But to think that some lads from suburbia could stumble across this sound is to underestimate how difficult it is to make pop music that is catchy or studied, never mind both.

There’s a sense of humidity contain within each of their efforts that doesn’t relent, the tropical edge of their work sharpened with this close sense of focus. You get the impression they’ve all got brilliant, white teeth and discovered this sound whilst on their gap year - but the likelihood is they’ve just spent too long reading the right blogs. Whichever path sees them deliver on the promise of these early recordings with their LP is the one you want to see them on though, if only to give you a bigger headache choosing your album of the year once December rolls around. We can only sit around and wait, hoping that our lives might finally be affirmed.

YAWN E.P. by YAWN