YAWN - 'Wasting Time'
Seeking to explore the strange space between nature and technology, Canadian songstress YAWN has recently been turning heads on both sides of the Atlantic. Her latest single ‘Wasting Time’ looks set to continue the trend, while succeeding in striking a balance between the organic and the contrived beautifully.
Harbouring an ebb and flow that feels just about as organic as possible for something some so exquisitely composed, ‘Wasting Time’ is an undulating and understated track. Built around a backbone of electronics that paradoxically provide the track with its organic air thanks to their natural swells and the spatial awareness, between both the notes, and the instruments themselves, something which in turn allow the track’s subtle nuances to really take hold.
Of course, it’s not just the composition in which the boundaries between the two are blurred. Lyrically the track is interested in what it really means to be an artist: the risks involved, how to counteract all the expectations from the people around you and how to push against the tides of capitalism and societal norms.
For many, it may seem like the above are indeed contrived; issues and aspects of a career in art that are just something artists need to deal with if they’re determined to succeed. For those for whom art is their everything however, their raison d'être, questioning capitalism and societal norms are about as organic as the air that they breathe, and it’s this murky middle ground in which YAWN seeks to find clarity.
Three minutes of seemingly understated but otherwise subtlety nuanced, ‘Wasting Time’ is the sound of an artist oozing musical understanding, whilst playing to the insecurities that plague us all, artist or not. Stunning.
Words of Dave Beech