Sam Raspante
The Yearbook
scum stats: probably a couple hundred copies on green vinyl
This LP showed up unsolicited at the Nashville TMR headquarters as LPs often do. I don't place much stock in the passivity of this process, but nevertheless I still try to listen to them as often as I can. If someone has gone through the pains to press it on vinyl and pay to send it this way, it's honestly the least I can do.
I had low expectations here, probably out of self-preservation. But I was pleasantly surprised with these songs. There's moments that feel like Olivia Rodrigo's earnestness, at times I hear shades of Hendrix's guitar fluidity, and there's also an intangible Jack White-esque influence that shimmers through. Something that sounds equally mature and juvenile, wisened and innocent, knowing better and not knowing better...all at the same time. A record that exists on an entirely liminal space, unique in it's familiarity, expectedly unexpected.
I think this is worth your time, at the very least, to listen to a song. If even just one of you buys a copy, it will have all been worth it.
Just me or do you also hear a tinge of Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan like wail in the vocals?