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Yuck

Yuck
Glow and Behold

Fat Possum

yuck-glow-and-behold East Londoners Yuck are back with a brand new album called Glow and Behold this month, but this time around something’s changed.

The departure of frontman and lead vocalist Daniel Blumberg earlier this year left most with the feeling that it could have been the end of Yuck, as Blumberg’s vocal style and loosely strummed chords grabbed everyone by the balls back in 2011 and spearheaded a welcome resurgence of shoegaze and slacker rock into the British scene. If memory serves, it was only four months ago that Yuck announced their frontman’s departure. For a band to come to terms with the loss of such an important part of their signature sound, hunt for a worthy replacement and then record a whole album seemed like an impossible task, but Yuck have bounced back in style regardless of such changes and delivered a beautifully crafted follow up.

Glow and Behold opens in an unexpected nonexplosive way. Easing into the guitar-led groove of ‘Sunrise in Maple Shade’, the band set the tone for the next 45 minutes with a sea of laid back grunge and driving tracks that bring the summer back in to this Autumnal stage of the year. Never abrasive, but at the same time totally immersed in noise, Glow and Behold feels like a progression for Yuck and proves that despite the challenge, they have pulled off the inevitable..

The production is more interesting in contrast to their self-produced and home recorded 2011 debut. All the instruments sit in the mix together rather than a wave of over-driven guitar jumping out at you. There’s exciting instrumentation that you don’t expect to hear in a Yuck album too, like the horn section in ‘Middle Sea’ and ‘How Does it Feel’, or the organ that resonates underneath ‘Somewhere’ and ‘Nothing New’. It’s by no means a soft record though, Yuck still retain the aspect of ‘cool’ that you want from a guitar-led rock band, despite the change in their sound.

After a little help from Google it became apparent that new frontman, Max Bloom had been working on Glow and Behold well before Yuck’ s debut was released and I can totally hear that in the songs. They sound complete and well formed, in contrast to the more spontaneous sounding tracks of their debut but you will have to judge that for yourself.

Glow and Behold is made up of 11 strong tracks of guitar-led goodness. If you’re looking for a slice of true melodic grunge this is the album for you. Look out for it on September 30th via Fat Possum Records.

Dave Palmer