Glitch Princess (studio album) by Yeule

Glitch Princess is one of the most varied, creative and well structured pop albums I've heard. The PC music adjacent release, which sees production credits from Danny L Harle, Mura Masa and Yeule herself among others, contains a set of distinct and eerie tracks, with vocals and lyrics from Yeule that present and build on downbeat themes as the record progresses. My Name Is Nat Ćmiel is a fantastic opener. With its minimalist sound and direct approach in its lyrics, it sets up the emotional core that the record builds from. I'm amazed it's so low rated on here, the distorted vocals and withdrawn background electronics might have a repetitive feel to them, but they bring to the foreground lines like "I like to eat, but I don't like when it lingers on my body, I like to take up as little space as possible". From here the production gets much bigger, but Yeule's personality and struggle remain at the centre of the music. 'Don't Be So Hard on Your Own Beauty' and 'Bites On My Neck' stand out as the albums highlights. The former is built around an acoustic guitar, helping the track find a strange kind of peace as the vocal delivery sees one line come quickly after another, almost turning into a blur, the latter is one of my favourite tracks of the year, the euphoric feeling as the instrumental builds is phenomenal and they manage to pull it off twice. However, between these big tracks, you get something like 'Fragments', a track whose emptiness and distortion slows the middle of the album. These frequent changes of pace allow the individual tracks to shine for their own qualities without any risk of becoming overpowering or samey in the tracklist. Ending with the repetitive and dissonant 'Mandy' lets the album finish with a driving non-conclusion and is the loud and unsettling opposite of the opener. In a thought provoking and sometimes harsh album it refuses to offer an ending that neatly ties everything together.

I listened to this while on a flight from Manchester to Dublin and it was the perfect amount of time (excluding the rather immensely long final/ bonus track) so that’s always fun! Raw, dark, and challenging to listen to at times, it really packs a punch, but rewards those listeners willing to persevere with some of the most experimental and forward thinking pop music I’ve heard this year.

There is a rawness to the lyricism in “Glitch Princess”. Yeule directly sings about self-loathing, body image and eating disorders. There is no romanticizing of it, each line feels like a pure statement of suffering. This thematic bluntness is combined with a distant production style. The glitchy background noise is sparingly layered over quiet vocals and light piano. This brings focus on the aforementioned lyricism at the cost of sound variety. After listening for a while, the album begins to sound less minimalist and instead empty. “Glitch Princess” is emotionally intense but instrumentally tired.

From Arthurknight 05/20/2022 00:14

Glitch Princess is basically 3 records from my POV: the first half is a quite boring and rather shallow attempt at conceptualising the record. The second half from "Don't Be So Hard On Your Own Beauty" onwards is incredible post-pop music – perhaps the best to come out of this genre since Oblivion. Lastly: a 4 hour ambient piece mostly consisting of vocal harmonies that I didn't listen to in it's entirely but rather flicked around in case something of note came up (it didn't.) Granted, this is not listed in the formal bandcamp tracklist so I'm treating it as a "bonus" track.

Album Rating: 60.08
(721/12)

Reminiscent of Chris Morris’ ‘Blue Jam’ without the Kilroy-Silk.

1.My Name Is Nat Ćmiel. 6
2.Electric - 72
3.Flowers Are Dead. 29
4.Eyes - 69
5.Perfect Blue (Feat. Tohji). 64
6.Don't Be So Hard On Your Own Beauty. 68
7.Fragments. 62
8.Too Dead Inside. 81
9.Bites On My Neck. 69
10.I <3 U. 68
11.Friendly Machine. 64
12.Mandy. 69

Just come across Yeule and this album. It's a first listen blockbuster for me. Love it musically and lyrically in spite of its dark content. Music for 2022. I look forward to exploring its intricacies in more detail and can sew it being one of my AOTY.

TBC…

Album Rating:

1.My Name Is Nat Ćmiel
2.Electric - 72
3.Flowers Are Dead
4.Eyes - 69
5.Perfect Blue (Feat. Tohji)
6.Don't Be So Hard On Your Own Beauty
7.Fragments
8.Too Dead Inside
9.Bites On My Neck
10.I <3 U
11.Friendly Machine
12.Mandy