Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD), Cassette, 2 x Vinyl LP
Encountering Yves Tumor’s third full-length album, Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), the words of another rock star changeling spring to mind: “Don’t believe in yourself/ Don’t deceive with belief.” This slippery couplet also suits Yves Tumor as they continue to slink off expectations to explore the conundrums of belief and deceit. For the fans who first became enamored with Tumor’s music through the electronic noise underground with 2016’s Serpent Music, witnessing Tumor’s (platform) heel turn to a glam rock star for Safe in the Hands of Love was whiplash-inducing but delectably undeniable.
Praise A Lord Who Chews still finds Tumor mining the trappings of modern rock stardom while sidestepping its clichés. The huge, crunching guitar riffs and soaring choruses punctuating “Meteora Blues” could fill any open-air amphitheater. The album features some of Tumor’s catchiest songs and some of their gentlest moments to date while also letting in more of the unsettling noise that defined their earliest music. Distorted screams, panting breath, and guitar scratches opens “God is a Circle,” but Tumor is whispering about the “places in my mind that I can’t go…parts of me I still don’t even know,” about the life lessons imparted by their parents. But is this a new personal, confessional Tumor or just another new smokescreen of theirs to pass through?
There may be places of the mind that Tumor can’t go to, but their musical reach continues to expand in a tentacular fashion. Shoegaze, grunge, coldwave, and Cocteau Twins’ ambiance all tumble about in Tumor’s sonic funhouse, abutting one another. Tumor’s adenoidal yowl amid the buzzsaw guitars of “Operator” suggest Faith No More’s Mike Patton joining 4AD, a point emphasized as the song slides into a cheerleader chant of “Be Aggressive!” And those who might still pine for Tumor’s way with a loop (as on early classic “The Feeling When You Walk Away”) will find that the distorted R&B fanfare of “Purified By the Fire” showcases their transportive way with noise.
But we know that they can do it, so the real treat now is now they find equal resonance with gentler sounds. Couched in cyclones of phased guitars and bombastic drums, Tumor’s acoustic guitar and fragile falsetto glimmer on “Heaven Surrounds Us Like a Hood.” “Lovely Sewer” and “Fear Evil Like Fire” boast some of Tumor’s sweetest melodies to date. Does Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) hint at a more romantic Tumor to come? Don’t deceive yourself.
