Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of April 24th-30th, 2016:
Yeah Wings - It Feels Like Laughing With You
01. Trust
02. A New Place To Live
03. The Hill
04. To Human Kindness
05. Streetsboro Accent
06. By My King's Command
07. Grave
08. It Feels Like Laughing With You
09. Neak
My introduction to Minneapolis slow-core band Yeah Wings goes back to the Ecstattic Studios compilation ECS 019: Make A Star (Part One: Shining Bright) and their track "Sharkswords." It's a six and a half minute slow-burner closing out a compilation heavy on punk rock & crunch. It's raw & confessional, with singer/bandleader Collin Dall laying out his affection & surprise at a woman named Sally. While it doesn't necessarily fit the mold of the most of the Ecstattic sound, it stands as a fitting introduction to the world Dall creates under the Yeah Wings name.
It Feels Like Laughing With You picks up where "Sharkswords" left off. Rather than rebel against the "slow-core" label (which would have been an understandable reaction some potential pigeonholing), Dall doubles down on the album's opener "Trust." Opening the first act of an album with a song that's 9:44 takes some stones. Waiting until you're 4:00 in to even utter a word is an act of defiance. Once Dall, percussionist Nico Ciani, bassist Alex Depompei, & pianist Matt Ciani have set the mood, Dall lays out the album's thesis is three simple words: "You, loving you."
Now, make no mistake, It Feels Like Laughing With You is dedicated to love in the most real way possible. While Dall certainly has time for deep, true affection, over the nine songs on this record he explores the loneliness, bitterness, joy, & sorrow that come from something so seemingly simple as love. Hell, the second couplet of "Trust" reads, "You, hating you..."
All of these emotions make IFLLWY a heavy album. To his credit, Dall doesn't shy away from his statements by trying to make things more accessible during the album's second act. "To Human Kindness" is limited to two brief verses, slowly picked guitar work, and enough negative space to feel like you're suffocating in your own head. I don't have any idea what the first half of "Streetsboro Accent" means, but when Dall sings "Words mean more to you than my beating arms around you" before letting loose a distortion-fuelled racket of a coda while claiming, "I'm not the same boy I was, I am the same boy you loved," he lays it out with crystal clarity, a mix of anger, longing, & confusion acting as the mid-album peak and second act closer.
The album, out of necessity, takes a 35 second breather of amplifier buzz with "By My King's Command" before launching into its third act.
When we rejoin Dall, he seems to be in the morning-after phase of "Streetsboro's" climax. "Everything moves back while you fight forward..." he sings, seemingly to himself while Matt Ciani's piano & wurlitzer add color a color and the sense of wonder that comes with reflection.
As an album title, It Feels Like Laughing With You seems to imply an in-the-moment feeling of affection. However, the title finds clarity on the track "It Feels Like Laughing With You." It is still an in-the-moment feeling, but it's a feeling brought by memories of those times when affection was simple and pure, an idealized version of the past that does its best to neglect the raw emotion of "Streetsboro Accent" and instead focuses on how things used to be, how they should have been, and how they couldn't be. Matt Ciani's piano is again a standout during the coda, bringing a necessary sense of playfulness to Dall's reflection. It's the audio equivalent of shaking your head and smiling to yourself.
In this narrative, the title track brings closure (or, at least as much closure as possible) to the IFLLWY arc. In that sense, closer "Neak" seems like an odd way to end the record. However, it stands as probably the most accessible stand alone track on the album. Drummer Nico Cianni picks up the pace while Dall eschews the drama & slow-core for an out-and-out jangling indie-pop rocker (it even has whistling!). The way it does fit on the album, however, is as a sort of palate cleanser, playing over the credits of a deep, heavy film.
Honestly, spending a week with IFLLWY was exhausting. Dall tells his tale in a way that's both obtuse and brutally confessional. It's not an album meant for casual listening. It's themes will cut deeply for anybody willing to open up and listen, though, and in that sense it's an incredibly rewarding album.
If you'd like to check out It Feels Like Laughing With You for yourself, head over to Yeah Wings Bandcamp page and pick it up. The band also has a show coming up May 12th at The Kitty Kat Club that you should probably look into.
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