ESSENTIAL TUNE OF FEBRUARY 2019
YONAKA - ‘BAD COMPANY’
It’s no secret that we are pretty big fans of Yonaka here at TMR HQ, having covered them extensively last year and putting them front and centre on our list of artists to watch in 2019. And we’re hugely excited to hear even more new music from them! To follow up the Teach Me to Fight and Creature EPs released last year we have a brand new single ‘Bad Company’ from the Yonaka camp, ahead of their debut album which is titled Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow, dropping to bless our ears on May 31st via Asylum Records.
If ‘Bad Company’ is an impression of how the album will be received, then it’s an overwhelmingly positive one. As revealed by the band on Twitter, the song’s title is a shrewd metaphor for an ongoing battle with anxiety and depression - more accurately depicting the struggle of how to be rid of it once it makes its presence known. Theresa Jarvis charts a course for this journey with some of her most stark and anguished lyrics to date - “I got a picture in my head, but it's not what I like to see/and then this big black cloud came down to smother me” - whilst the ferocious guitars from George Edwards crash around Robert Mason’s thunderous drum playing-style and Alex Crosby’s heavy set bass execution. It’s a combination that is contradictory raw and commercial in the same expanse, whilst providing a clinical punch to all of the senses.
The polished alternative rock sound has of course been done before. But the explosive interpretation of this that Yonaka exude, whilst incorporating a heavy dose of both heartfelt relativism and all out attitude make them one of the most enthralling acts in the British rock scene. Yonaka have also announced an extensive UK and European tour to coincide with the album launch, including a headline at London’s Heaven nightclub before they support Bring Me The Horizon at All Points East festival on album release day.
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