Cassette Review // YAWNi "pussy willow (mixtape)"

https://yawni.bandcamp.com/album/pussy-willow-mixtape

This cassette has three YAWNi releases on it: "Joy Destructive" is on Side A, which is a full length album, and then both "Cry if you need to" and "Pussy Willow", which are EPs, make up Side B.  While this isn't really a YAWNi discography, I do enjoy when cassettes are released like this because it's giving you so much music at one time.  Some cassettes would have just the first side as their entire cassette so this really is like three cassettes in one.

YAWNi carries a sound of melodic rock.   "James Bond et al" has a faster pace to it, like punk rock, and at times I think about No Doubt.  Slower, dreamy melodies come out on "Al Gemini" and the lyrics can really weave a web, as they go back and forth between lines like "No logic / no reason".   The fourth song keeps the idea of being slow and dreamy alive, but yet somehow also gets louder than the song before it.

"Psychogenic Polydipsia" brings out a bit of the rambling and then "sunsunsunsun" is also chaotic, as the lyrics sing "Here comes the sun" before repeating the word "sun".   The next song brings in a more country / Americana vibe while "flaccid arms" has that big clapping / stomping drum part with a nice guitar riff.   "Elderly Alligator" has that banjo feel and sings "It's a long time / to be alive".  This all ends on a beautiful ballad.  

On the flip side we begin with "Rules & Hearts" which has some hectic strumming which sounds like acoustics.   Starts and stops take us into huge percussion and cymbal crashes.  "Cause I ain't nothin' / If I ain't yours" comes out as a lyric now.   In a big flurry of guitars and percussion now, the title- "Cry if you need to"- comes out in the lyrics now.   The drums just pound like a knocking.  This is intense.   Into a sea of distortion and an audio clip now.  

This brings "Cry if you need to" to an end and though this is four songs it doesn't really take a break in between and just feels like one continuous song.  I also like that this is called "Cry if you need to" because so many times in music it feels like people are telling us not to cry or to hold back or emotions somehow, so it's time we start letting it out.  

Into "Pussy Willow" now and the distorted guitars create a connection between the two EPs.   A drum beat as if we are marching, those psychedelic guitar riffs like Hendrix now, all tied together with magical vocals.   We get into this deeper Nirvana-type drive now with cymbal crashes as the vocals echo on "God Loves Ugly".   The title to this song is true because I feel like a lot of things are ugly, but I also feel like there is a certain beauty to be found in everything.  

We are into more of a psychedelic song now, as it echoes it just feels like the type of sound that could fill an entire room.   The percussion is also banging.   As the beat stays steady now the vocals come out at a higher pitch.   We get into this sort of surf guitar riff on the last song and it makes me want to listen to Frankie and Annette, though there is also some distortion to it.  This whole EP just feels like it's more of the psych-pop vibe and it could almost fit in with some twee artists.

This might feel like a lot of music to take in, but it's okay.   Having too much music is better than not having enough music.   In many ways, music is that one thing you can never have too much of, in theory.   Through all of the songs, that same distorted punk rock mixed with something only YAWNi can provide brings a theme to this cassette and really just begins to define this sound as something YAWNi is molding and shaping into their own.