Brighton based YONAKA’s new 4 track EP is a solid collection of songs that unfortunately don’t break any boundaries.
The opening track Own Worst Enemy certainly opens the EP with a bang, its loud, melodic and aggressive and the chorus is one of the EP’s highlights, this song is YONAKA at their best and is a reminder of what people love about them. Next is the EP’s title track Creature, starting with a more electronic sound this song feels overly poppy and clichéd, it never really hits the mark and musically feels underwhelming, it has got no real kick to it other than a chorus that falls fairly flat with hook that feels fairly generic. Creature isn’t a terrible song by any means but it feels uninspiring, held up against the power of Own Worst Enemy and combined with the equally forgettable Death By Love that comes next on the track list, the two songs in the middle of the EP really give the Creature release a bit of a dip in quality. On a more positive note, YONAKA end the EP on a solid version of The Zombies’ classic, She’s Not There, the band really made this sound their own and if there is YONAKA brand of music this cover ticks all the boxes. She’s Not There is pumped up, high octane and truly a testament to how inventive YONAKA can be.
Performance wise, vocalist Theresa Jarvis really knocks it out the park, the vocals are always powerful and really stand out even on the weaker songs on the EP, there is a lot of impressive drumming on Creature as well, especially on Own Worst Enemy.
Creature is by no means a bad EP, but at times it can feel pretty derivative of other artists around such as Deep Valley, Royal Blood and some of Wolf Alice’s more guitar focused work. YONAKA have developed their own style of soulful, bluesy, garage rock that has been exciting and interesting on some of their previous releases, such as 2017s Heavy EP and whilst Creature isn’t bad, it isn’t particularly great either, it doesn’t really promote anything new and has the feel of a band trying to rehash the formula that gained them some traction in the first place. Highlights come in the form of Own Worst Enemy and She’s Not There but all in all Creature feels like a very average release from an otherwise promising band.
5.5/10
