Yves Tumor - Gospel For A New Century

How much longer till December?

Album: Heaven to a Tortured Mind [4th album]
Recorded: Berlin, London & Los Angeles
Genre: Rock, Art Rock, Psychedelic Rock,
Album Release: April 3rd 2020
Single Release: February 18th 2020 [lead single]
Length: 3:18
Producer: Yves Tumor & Justin Raisen
Vocalist: Yves Tumor [age 30]
Label: Warp Records

Music Video [watch the video directly on YouTube]


Audio

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: 28,000,000 +
YouTube Music: 900,000 +
Paste Magazine Best Albums of 2020: #20
Pitchfork Best Albums of 2020: #7
Stereogum Best Albums of 2020: #13

Credits & Gear

Bass, drums, clarinet, flute, guitar [x2], saxophone [x2]

Details

• The name 'Gospel For A New Century' takes its inspiration from anime. The original title of the popular series 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' was 'Shin Seiki Evangelion'. Shin translates from Japanese as "new", seiki translates as "century" and one translation of evangelion is "gospel".
  
  In the music video, Yves is dressed as the devil and he cavorts with several demonic figures in front of strobing neon lights. If this is the gospel for a new century then it's one where Satan prospers. The song's about the destructive nature of lust.
  
  
  
  The lyrics describe the end of a relationship "I looked into your eyes, it was over" in summer "you were gone then on that summer" and then Yves implores someone to light his fire, which represents lust, and wonders "how much longer 'till December?" Summer was when the relationship died and December, its opposite, will be when it's reborn. Or conversely, when his lust has died down. 'Kerosene', the second single from the same album, is also about the problems caused by lust. 
  
  'Gospel For A New Century' is better suited for radio play than Yves earlier, experimental work and has a traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Not surprisingly, it was chosen as the lead single from 'Heaven to a Tortured Mind'.
  
  The album's title,  'Heaven to a Tortured Mind', which is hell, maintains the good but bad, bad but good feeling expressed in 'Gospel For A New Century'. Eating too much can feel good but is bad for you. Too much lust, when satisfied, can feel good but is bad for you. It's a contradiction that the things in life that feel good are often the things that should be restrained. Too many drugs feels good but is bad for you. The difference is, what feels good in the short term has long term negative consequences and what feels bad in the short term has long term positive consequences. For example, exercise feels bad but is good for you. Restraint is good but makes you feel as if you're missing out.
  
  
• You never know what you're getting when you press play on a Yves Tumor record. His music is electronic rock and psychedelic soul mixed with a punk filled hypnagogia. Which is to say, a steady mix of musical styles he has somehow managed to fit together into a coherent whole. Yves himself (he doesn't care about pronouns) is a non-binary person who has lived in Tennessee, Italy, Germany and San Diego which informs the fluidity of his sonic pallette.
  
  Yves Tumor (real name Sean Bowie, no relation) makes music which is hard to define but soulful, as it's raw emotion laid bare, but it's done in a way that shouts its truth at the listener as opposed to the pained whispers of other singers. It's also artful, as there's a theatricality to his performance. On stage he wears a variety of outlandish costumes and deliberately paints himself as the freak, the weirdo or the outsider. He goes out of his way to stand out, unashamedly putting his otherness front and centre for all to see as if to say he's proud of his otherness.
  
  I think Yves' music isn't autobiographical in the narrative sense but it is in terms of raw emotion. The feelings are his and he plays them out in a series of loud, changing unabashed characters which seems akin to the 21st century fashion for fluid identities. This is amplified by the changing style of his music as he can cycle through multiple genres in each album.
  
  I, at times, wonder if there's something more softly spoken under the affectations, as if I want to hear an album by Sean Bowie the person, not Yves Tumor the persona. However, this is to miss the point. The value of this type of performance is that it permits the quieter parts of the personality to shout, and there's something worthwhile in listening to the things that are rarely heard.
  
  The French name Yves means "yew", an evergreen tree, and Tumor refers to a cancerous growth. Which is to mix the natural with the diseased, and this dichotomy between desired and undesired makes itself known throughout the artists work with album titles such as 'Heaven to a Tortured Mind' which refers to hell.
  
  
• Courtney Love described Tumor as a "fucking genius" during a conversation with Interview Magazine.
  
  

Artwork