trageser.com
Music Review

Home
Computers
Book Reviews and Reading Diary
CD Buying Guide and Music Links
Best-of lists
CD Reviews
CDs, sorted by Style
CDs, sorted by year issued
CDs, sorted by publication review ran in
CDs by San Diego bands
All CDs, sorted by band name
All CDs, sorted by album title
Interviews
Favorite quotations
Contact Me



Awaiting the perfect song

Too Far Gone
Too Far Gone
By Yovee

Manaloft Records: 2005


This review first appeared in Turbula in July 2005.

San Diego's Yovee is a band of intriguing vision and sterling musicianship – but one that on its second album never finds that one breakthrough song that shows not only shows off their genius, but burrows into your head and heart and won't leave either.

That album, "Too Far Gone," showcases the band's lush harmony vocals and unusual (at least for a band with an indie/alt edginess) reliance on piano to provide much of the anchor for its sound.

"Grace" comes closest to providing that missing perfect song, but in the end it – like many of the other songs – only teases. It is well-crafted, full of little aural nooks and crannies that hold your interest. But the melody is, well, a bit plain. Nowhere does it break out into something purely beautiful. That's true of several other songs as well; the technique of putting them together is unquestionable – but the melody at the heart of them is simply lacking.

Still, one gets the idea that the perfect song still awaits Yovee – that they'll find it and when they do, that it will be something magnificent and wondrous.