Yea-Ming And The Rumours

Yea-Ming And The Rumours

Residue

Dandy Boy

***Following 2024’s I Can’t Have It All, Bay Area indie pop band Yea-Ming and The Rumours return with their fourth studio album, Residue. With Yea-Ming’s signature heart-tugging lyrics and Nico-esq voice, she continues to explore the rawness of human experience and emotions. When I Can’t Have It All signified a time of change and transition for Yea-Ming, Residue embraces the reset; the examination of reality after a storm.With the help of long-time collaborator Eóin Galvin (Hoxton Mob, Readyville) on lead guitar and lap steel, Ryli colleagues Rob Good (The Goods, Ryli) on bass and Luke Robbins (Ryli, R.E. Seraphin) on drums, Yea-Ming takes us on a journey of regrowth, reflection and exploration.In Treasury of Loved Ones, Yea-Ming explores the permanence of memory, or what appears to be permanent even as time moves on and erases moments out of our lives. It’s a sweet and sad ode to remembering our loved ones, especially those we have lost to in time and in death. In Sweet Opiate (with hints of The Cardigans), Yea-Ming dares to dive into intimacy and its vulnerabilities. In the experimental Paper Doll, she admits inauthenticity in a world where one has been taught to please everyone around them to survive. And in Fine Afternoon, we are confronted with the reality of a tainted rebirth as Yea-Ming sings “in this life renewed, you’re my residue” (here we find our album title) and we remember that resets are never clean.The Rumours explore a little bit musically this time as well;...

Yea-Ming And The Rumours

I Can't Have It All

Dandy Boy

***I Can’t Have It All is the third studio album by Yea-Ming and The Rumours and marks a new line-up and creative era for the band. Frontwoman Yea-Ming Chen has masterfully curated her self-proclaimed “pop record.” Weaving melancholy narratives with catchy hooks in a sound that is more surfy, more punk and more indie than anything the Rumours have done before. Fuller sounding production heavily influenced by groups like Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura and other early '90s underground college radio favorites, I Can’t Have It All marks the band’s continued evolution. Alongside the usual beautiful imagery, Yea-Ming’s songwriting remains as introspective as ever, but I Can’t Have It All marks a changing point both creatively and personally in the songstress’ life. Written during a difficult period in which she struggled to identify and painfully shed a “false-self" imposed by the outside world, the album follows the personal and relatable journey of accepting loss and making changes. “I realized one day that I have spent most of my life pretending to be someone that other people wanted me to be, and that was probably the source of my anxiety and depression.” Recalls the songwriter. “So I made changes that were really hard and I experienced a lot of grief in letting go of people and situations that held a lot of power over me emotionally—even if it wasn’t intentional—and I became someone that is closer to who I want to be. In that transition, I discovered that it is completely...