featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 6, 2021
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
I was staring down a difficult choice in the halcyon days of December 2018: Brittany Howard or Yola? I was collating my favorite records for the year, and I had decided that one of these would take the top spot. Regarding Brittany Howard's Jaime, I crowned her our Nina Simone and bubbled over about the genius of her alien funk. I devoted repeated listenings to her sometimes inscrutable collection, a process that only saw the album grow in my estimation. And yet I gave the top spot to Yola's Walk Through Fire.
It's a decision I've contemplated ever since. That debut project with Dan Auerbach was a decidedly retro affair, an undeniably likeable set simmering with warmth and goodness. Stitched together from scraps of country and soul and early rock, Fire was as familiar as Jaime was foreign. Soon thereafter, I plopped the two records at numbers sixteen and seventeen of my favorites of the 2010s. And then I turned my attention to the decade to come.
Yola has returned with Auerbach in tow for their follow-up, Stand For Myself (Easy Eye Sound). From the increased tempos to the vocal abandon and the consistent message of uplift, it's a bolder, more Yola-centric project. When will you start living, she asks herself, Now that you've survived. "Barely Alive" is dotted with percolating organ and breezy bells, Yola tentatively toeing the line between surviving and thriving. Stand follows the artist on her journey across that line as a Black woman in a field defined by white men. The deceptively buoyant "Diamond Studded Shoes" shatters the rose-colored glasses and recognizes the world as summarily flawed: Working just to make it alright / When we know it isn't. It's a remarkable juxtaposition, pairing the session's most infectious groove with the repeated refrain It ain't gonna turn out right.
Auerbach bears a distinct stamp as a producer, player and cowriter (ie, his work with a range of artists from Jessica Lea Mayfield and Nikki Lane to Dr John and Tony Joe White, not to mention his longtime service to Black Keys). That mastery isn't lacking on Stand, bountiful with terrific arrangements and throwback musicianship. The restless r&b workout "Break the Bough" tells the story of Yola's mother's journey from Barbados to England, dropping horns and shuffling drums onto a mix rich in these retro elements but not beholden to them. Above it all is an ecstatic delivery from Yola, the defining aspect around which all these other pieces are in orbit. While her singing on Fire was revelatory, it seems mannered in comparison to the incendiary title cut.
In the wake of the well-earned attention and accolades from her previous album, these new songs welcome a cavalcade of guests and collaborators, including cowrites with Joy Oladokun, Ruby Amanfu, Aaron Lee Tasjan and Natalie Hemby. Brandi Carlile shares vocals on "Be My Friend", an affirmation of allyship, and the indispensable McCrary Sisters grace several cuts. Of course, none outshine Yola.
Stand For Myself carves a wider, more confident stylistic swath, dismissing any notions that Yola in a one-trick pony. "Dancing Away in Tears" is a sigh of a song, cruising on a warm disco beat, while the jazz-adjacent "Like a Photograph" is as cool as a Burt Bacharach classic boasting one of the collection's wry signature lines: Whoever said life was a river / That was gonna roll on forever / Had to have been / Out of their mind. "Whatever You Want" harkens to the country-soul of Fire, with an undeniably melodic chorus and a genuinely heartfelt vocal. It all kneels at the glory of "Stand For Myself", an anthem that draws together the record's challenges and affirmations, unleashing them through buzzing guitar, insistent piano and that transcendent vocal: I used to feel nothing like you / Now I'm alive.
But let's pick up the thread from my intro. The juxtaposition between innovation and familiarity is what fuels R&B. The resolution is Yes. No decision needs to be made other than to continue to honor that balance. My sense in 2018 was that Yola was poised to become something special, that the success of Fire would simply serve as an intro that would spark more. Stand For Myself confirms that suspicion, tagging Yola as a relevant writer and vocalist who has constructed her vision within Dan Auerbach's musical sandbox. While those retro elements remain to some extent, they are no longer the focal point of the sessions. Yola has risen to eclipse those trappings, to become the bright hot sun in this creative universe. What's more, Stand both redefines and overflows the boundaries of the americana world that first embraced her. Those days are gone forever / When I gave you whatever you want.
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The release calendar continues to throw wonderful curveballs at my cursory sense of a year-end favorites list. A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster can barely contain it all (spoiler: it does). This week we added a seasonally appropriate EP from Karen Jonas. The four-track Summer Songs (Yellow Brick, Aug 20) accompanies a book of original poetry, Gumballs. Dori Freeman counters with Ten Thousand Roses, expected on September 10 (Blue Hens). Legendary Shack Shakers win the award for the week's best title. Cockadoodledeux marks their Alternative Tentacles debut, and graces shelves September 17. Adia Victoria has been on our radar since her 2016 Beyond the Bloodhounds. Mark my words that A Southern Gothic will vault her to the front of the pack (Atlantic, Sept 17). Finally, I've been a fan of Houndmouth's pop-informed roots music. On the heels of a few excellent singles, they've announced a November 5 street date for Good For You (Dualtone).
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