YEN HARLEY: “The Substance Of Things” 8

TSM/Slw 2010
Review by Urban “Wally” Wallstrom,
14 November 2010

Yen Harley??? Hey, as long as they’re happy. “So throw away your pearls to the swine – you won’t devaluate” is a direct quote from the opening track, “Pearls”, a completely new take on the old saying, I believe, yeah? This is the mighty fine debut album from an alternative rock band from Utrecht, The Netherlands and vocalist/guitarist Lukas Batteau is a star in the making. But seriously, how “alternative” can you (still) be if you’re inspired by commercial and very successful acts such as Pearl Jam, REM, Alice in Chains, The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Nirvana??? Alternative is supposed to be the… ehh, the alternative to commercial rock, yeah? no? Nevermind…

The good thing about being in a “alternative” rock band, you have the given right to be as hopelessly melancholic as you like without upsetting people to shout ‘ cheer up you miserable bastard’. And man, these lads (and one lass) give melancholy a bad name in a good way. A band like Yen Harley especially when armed with songs called “Under Black Light” and “Holes In The Sky” are never going to back down from a grungy stare contest. Certainly any band that makes the decision to bring back the darker, heavier sound of the nineties deserves respect. More rightly so when they’ve managed to come up with a string of fine melodies, which evoke a nostalgic feeling as well as ‘fresh’ and exciting. That opening, “Pearls”, pretty much sets the standard of the record. It’s close to top notch mid-tempo rock with strong vocals (hardly any singing accent whatsoever) and they’ve essentially adopted a ‘less is more’ approach to their arrangements. Not as “aggressive” as the desperate cries of Cobain and neither as heavy as early Soundgarden. “The Substance Of Things” sits nicely in between the mellow side of Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden and REM.

The bottomline: Yen Harley more than deserve your attention and I’am still trying to figure out if it’s a strong eight or a weak nine rating. It’s really that good. Oh, and the monicker, appearantly Batteau named the band after a hotmail account of a girl he had hopelessly been in love with. Well, there you go… I’ll have to name my next project: ‘pissoffyousickbastard_iamnotyourgirlfriend’… ’sigh’… angela… sweet angela.

www.yenharley.com
www.myspace.com/yenharley