James Yuill
These Spirits
Release Date: Mar 25, 2013
Genre(s): Electronic, Electronica, Club/Dance
Record label: The Happy Biscuit Club
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Album Review: These Spirits by James Yuill
Fairly Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 6.5/10
Electro-folk Londoner James Yuill returns with his third full-length album, having built his reputation on crafting acoustic numbers backed by soft synths and oodles of feeling, making music that’s sugary, hard-hitting and frankly, wonderful. This new effort sees Yuill depart from that formula and toy with ’90s trance, hard house and dabble in dazzling pop. Yuill encroaches upon house territory on much of the record, injecting rapid techno beats, rave-inspired synths and killer pace.
Based on rating 3
Folk musicians are often pictured with nothing but a guitar slung over one shoulder, a cigarette in their mouth and an enlightened vision of the world around them. But that’s all rather old hat for folk in the 21st century. James Yuill, folktronica specialist, is something of a big fish in a rather secluded pond, masked by a scraggy overgrowth at the back of the garden.
Opinion: Average
They say it only take 20 seconds to decide if you like a track. London-based producer James Yuill’s fifth full-length, ‘These Spirits’, proves this but you’ll need a sizeably larger chunk of patience, or maybe just a functional skip button, to appreciate it.The album announces itself with a flash of 90s power synth via ‘Lost In California’. Intimidating textures and the overly pretentious ‘You are the strangest man in California’ lyrical hook make for a curious introduction, leaving Yuill working hard to gain trust as a credible producer come singer.Just as the persistent four to the floors and 808s intoxicate ‘Turn Yourself Around’ and ‘Let It Go’, 90s disco is offered contemporary facelift.