Single Review: Yowl - 'Warm (In The Soft White Fire Of Modern Living)'

YOWL continue their white hot streak.

LICE. IDLES, SHAME. HMLTD. There are bands galore who just demand their names to be capitalised. And with good reason. The one unifying feature amongst the aforementioned bands is that they're in the official James Kitchen top five list of the best bands of the last two or three years. Enter YOWL. They contain the musical complexity of LICE, the aggression of IDLES, the laugh out loud lyrical genius of SHAME and the batshit craziness of HMLTD. Is there any more ways to capitalise YOWL? Their previous single "My Headache Likes to Speak" was a frantic assault on the soul, shooting at you from all sides. "Warm (in the Soft White Light" is sonically a more contemplative affair, but it's no less a full frontal song to listen to. And it's this kind of variety that keeps YOWL at the top of this list.

Kicking off with the kind of trippy jazz chords your least favourite fret-wanker might favour, the song turns into a Strokes ballad from First Impressions of Earth sung by Matt Berninger in the best possible way. It expands on the lyrical obscurity that their obvious heroes The National hold but with glorious results. Pick of the bunch is the phenomenal line in the second chorus- "i dream without fault and I will stir only when you fill my head with Alfred Hitchcock pornos/I watch them til I wake when I remember that he never filmed a porno in his life and now I hate him for it"- it justifies the song with the kind of bleak, blackly hilarious lyrical content that you desperately analyse Nick Cave b-sides for. The song drifts by in a slightly jarring calm that leaves you lying comfortably on the precipice of a mountain before the song suddenly explodes in a whirlwind of paralytic half shouts that leave you checking the singer isn't behind your own fucking door. YOWL have succeeded in making the most uncomfortable ballad of recent years and it's one of many many reasons why this band need to be on your to-see list right now. ABSOLUTELY. FUCKING. AWESOME.

Words by James Kitchen

Catch YOWL at the following live dates - 

28th April – Portsmouth Psych Fest
28th April – Sticky Mikes, Brighton (Free entry)
6th May – Sounds From The Other City, Manchester
25th – 27th May – Dot to Dot Festival
31st May – Bermondsey Social Club, London
21st July – Truck Festival, Oxford
1st August – Trades Club, Hebden Bridge w/ IDLES