‘That's What Happens (When You Never Look Down)' EP by Yes Princess

Pretty much exactly one year after Yes Princess' debut album ‘It's No One's Fault But Ours' (whose track "Conversation" is featured upon ‘Hot Music Live Presents Volume Eleven'), the quartet of  Rich Gardner (guitar),  Scott Parkes (vocals, guitar), Martin Packer (drums, backing vocals) and Dan Walker (bass, backing vocals) are back (or will be on Friday 20th September) with its follow-up, a three track EP called ‘That's What Happens (When You Never Look Down)'. The three being the title track, "Gather Round" and "Tie Yourself Up Instead".

In contrast to its predecessor, this one was  produced by Jon Webb at The Moonbase (how does he find the time for all these artists?).

However the two share the characteristic of internal diversity: once again they've selected songs which are not just distinctive but vary between themselves. For example if the first two tracks share a certain scuzziness, the cleanliness of "Gather Round" provides sonic shock appeal.

They obviously have the skills & inclination to play in different ways (and do so well) yet the music is there primarily as a setting for the words, which once again show a keen interest in exploring generally lesser explored themes.

The price one pays of course for such imagination is getting your head round what the songs are about: the further a writer moves from the cliché, the less one can predict and the more distorted the sound is, the more hard work needs putting in to pick out the actual words. However there's nothing wrong with that & the exercise certainly draws you into the songs.

As noted, "Gather Round" has the least distorted sound, but so integrated are the vocals into the mix that they need some listening to: at this point I'm prepared to go on record that I think it concerns issues of communication and compatibility: I'd like to think too that it takes on forces which divide people and celebrates inclusivity. But there is more to be derived from this I'm sure.

Ironically, ‘That's What Happens (When You Never Look Down)' while generally a much noisier track, has vocals which have been separated out more. I think this one is a warning against various manifestations of recklessness in life.. but am prepared to be corrected if necessary.

"Tie Yourself Up Instead" is the most Pixies-ish of the trio and has the most clear words: they sit highest in the mix of all of them. However I found them the most enigmatic in meaning: which sounds like it might be a deliberate irony implemented by the band. Like the preceding song, it may well be about loved ones whose own inclinations & behaviours leads them into perils of assorted kinds & the singer's desire to save them from themselves.. have a listen when it comes out & make up your own minds.

Personally I'd much rather have the challenge of coming to grips with songs rather than either ones which merely recycle old platitudes or currently the rash of those where the writer is so obsessed with getting successive lines to rhyme that he (and it's pretty much male writers who are guilty) produces couplets with no actual meaning (though bizarrely some people seem to choose to view these outcomes as poetic profundities). You know what I'm talking about I'm sure.

Yes Princess have, on the evidence of their music, a low boredom threshold and seem to be motivated by variety & a sense of offering songs which provoke interest. Their writing formula is probably "there is no formula" beyond not repeating themselves. Presumably their audience is one who respond to that sort of approach and who are therefore statistically likely to be ‘Hot Music Live' readers