The Yearning - Dreamboats & Lemonade

Was von 2014 übrig blieb (III)

Irgendwann im letzten Jahr bekam ich von Christoph vom Konzerttagebuch, ohne das Album hier vorzustellen und zu würdigen, "Dreamboats & Lemonade" von The Yearning geschenkt. Passend zu Albumtitel und -hülle übrigens als  zitronengelbes Vinyl und als Nummer 63, der auf 500 limitierten Exemplare. Möglicherweise hat er die komplette Auflage beim spanischen Label Elefant Records aufgekauft, denn The Yearning passen zu Christophs Musikgeschmack wie Züge zum Indietracks Festival.

The Yearning sind der Songwriter und Produzent Joe Moore sowie die Sängerin Maddie Dobie und eine Vielzahl an Musikern, die gemeinsam das The Yearning Orchestra bilden und wundervollen, lieblichen Retro-Pop zwischen Doo-Wop und 50s/60s Girl-Groups aus dem Hut zaubern, bei dessen Beschreibung man ohne die Nennung von Phil Spector, Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini, Dusty Springfield, The Ronettes und The Shirelles kaum auskommt. Thematisch drehen sich die beiden Plattenseiten um die süßen bzw. die bitteren Seiten der Liebe, eben um "Dreamboats & Lemonade".

THE YEARNING - If I Can't Have You von ElefantRecords

The album begins with ‘Dreamboat’, and with Dobie’s voice fading in, a smooth echo mixing in with what sounds like a crowd of people, this is a sweet way to start the album. If I Can’t Have You tells the story of a faltering relationship, bringing an element of sadness to the album, while the big production on this track made the hairs stand on the back of my neck.

‘Dance With Me’incorporates girl group harmonies reminiscent of a 60s disco, capturing the spirit of Motown, whereas ‘Chasing Shadows’ is downbeat in comparison, but contains lovely instrumentation, including a flute and a harp. ‘Marry Me In The Morning’ tells a story of a broken relationship, with a choir and marching drums on hand to increase the atmosphere, while on ‘Lemonade’, Dobie describes the love between her and a boy as being “sweeter than lemonade”, and throwing in a variety of metaphors, making for interesting wordplay.

The album tails off slightly on ‘Never Learn To Cry’, as the vocals are hard to hear due to the fact they are masked by reverb, however the album picks up with ‘Every Time I Fall In Love’, containing both an infectious chorus, and a glockenspiel, which brings a positive mood.

The final track, ‘When I Was Your Baby’, is beautiful and nostalgic. The harmonies are reminiscent of ‘Hobart Paving’by Saint Etienne, and bring the listener to a standstill and *cough* yearn for a simpler time.

Dreamboats & Lemonade felt like a trip back to the 50s/60s, with the girl group harmonies and the classic wall of sound production helping create a powerful and, at times, moving listen.

(The Galleon)

Moore tosses off unforgettable melodies like most people change ringtones, but each track is also embellished with a little something which makes it even more special. 'Chasing Shadows' introduces strings, woodwinds, and horns via The Yearning Orchestra to up the bubbly quotient, while the galloping 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' (Morricone style) arrangement adds a spaghetti Western expanse to the cinematic 'Marry Me in the Morning', which may just be their most ambitious creation yet.

If you need any further evidence of who has the most perfect voice in rock and roll, just listen to the heart-tugging 'It’s You That I Want'. Dobie’s inflection, emotion, and imploring vocal rank up there next to Harriett Wheeler, Sandy Denny, and Sarah Cracknell as a purveyor of the most perfect sounds to ever pass through a singer’s lips.

Each track ends with a cheesy little synth ditty/burp which may be an homage to either Saturday morning cartoons or the old DeWolfe music library albums (or both). They’re just this site of too cute, but still fun, although hearing a dozen of them does start to wear thin by the time we get to side two.

And speaking of, we would expect a track like 'Lemonade' to be fresh, cool, and relaxing, and we are not disappointed. Almost a cha cha/foxtrot melody floats across the room; toss in a hand-clap here and there, a trumpet blast for emphasis, and we’re off and running.

'How Will I Know' is practically oozing with the kind of swaying good feelings the Brill Building writers tossed off with the ease of drinking a glass of water. Moore has certainly captured their genius here. I can hear something like this coming from the collaborative pens of an Ellie Greenwich/Jeff Barry, Carole King/Gerry Goffin, or Cynthia Mann/Barry Weil.

The astonishing thing here is that Moore is doing it all himself. 'Every Time I Fall in Love' rues the dangers of falling in and out of love, but it’s so damn catchy, you can’t possibly stay brokenhearted long enough to well up a tear, and Alicia Rendle-Woodhouse’s backing vocals here are sublime.

Simply put, the best, and most fun album I’ve heard all year.

(Soundblab)