At Last! New Songs from the Young Women [stream]

The Young Women – Desert Song SoundCloud

It’s true that I’m a sucker for songs that sound sung into your ear. From such an intimate proximity, every articulation and emotion that the singer is conveying is made obvious. You can even guess at their facial expression if you know what they look like. The Young Women just released three additional songs to form their first EP, and it sounds every bit as intimate as if they recorded in their bathroom, and we are sitting in the bathtub. A little over a year and a half ago, we were given “No Good” with little to no information surrounding the band except that they were an “NYU band”, and that they had opened for Kurt Vile a year before that. I loved everything about “No Good” — its hushed candor, its mysterious brevity, its melody — so I was thrilled to hear the band had released a few more songs.

“The Next Step” is a simple acoustic track about the difficulties of moving on, and “Beach Song” is a drowsy lullaby about growing up. The track that really sticks out to me is “Desert Song” with interesting textures and a gradual build to a nervous breakdown. The singer begs his lover to end the torment, and it ends in screams. “Oh please won’t you leave me alone/You’re in my bones, my head, my toes/Oh won’t you leave me alone.” His anguish is so very present, and that’s probably what makes The Young Women so appealing to me. With subtle textures and careful melodies, I’m once again left wanting more. Listen to all four songs on The Young Women’s Soundcloud page, but begin with “Desert Song” above.