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And we're here for musicians who are just getting started too. At Early Work Records, bands at the outset of their careers can find resources, feedback, publicity, and maybe even representation -- but for now, we're helping raise awareness about all the amazing music you've never heard.
Why We Focus on Reviews
Reviews are crucial for bands and musicians early in their careers. Coverage helps increase audience awareness and provides material for bands' press kits, which can be used to garner attention from labels and booking agents at venues. Most importantly, though, reviews encourage bands to continue making music because it confirms their music is listened to, considered, and taken seriously.
Our Latest Review
Yucky Bangs
“Put Her on the Phone"
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80’s inspired synth pop with dark edges.
Yucky Bangs straddles the line between ebullient bubblegum pop and despair-drenched nostalgia. Rather than being pulled in both directions at once, or taking turns indulging in either genre, these divergent impulses generally cancel each other out and render the music pleasant and palatable, hearkening back to the experimentation of yesteryear. Think Cocteau Twins meets the Go-Gos.
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The nine songs comprising Put Her on the Phone are gentle even at their most dynamic, aiming to appease the listener more than accost them. It’s pop first and foremost, which means there’s a formula at work here that prioritizes melody, production, and personality. The production is consistent throughout, sounding professional and glossy, with crisp synths and vocals layered with delay, punchy drums and compressed guitars. At times the melodies take center stage, as in “the Far Side,” which impressively leaps from major keys to minors and creates a memorable sequence of hooks. Other times, the production feels like the focus, as in the warbly synths undergirding “Sky Turns Green” or the lo-fi intro to “Fire Season.”
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Each of these songs exists to showcase the vocals, because pop. Even with a consistently dreamy treatment, there’s a wholesome California twang to the vocals that occasionally peeks through the delay. Young Bangs is at their best when the singer steps into the lyrics like a punkier Jenny Lewis, as on the chorus of “Frost and Flame,” as California a song as exists on the album. The vocals are altogether gorgeous and impressive, and when that kind of skill blends with emotion and nuance it’s a delight to listen to.
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Put Her on the Phone is full of familiar sounds delivered in familiar ways, but with a signature commitment to minor keys and subdued melodies. All of it conveys impressive competence and clear talent. There are more than a few moments when risky decisions pay off, when we can hear the fun Yucky Bangs is having. When that’s the case, it’s impossible not to have fun as well.
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