Stranger Things

Yuck is a testament to the idea that music doesn’t need to be incredibly innovative to be original.

Though the London band don’t exactly attack in a fist-raised blaze of mega-riffs, they hit hard all the same with quick, sharp, and consistently executed blows of effortless songwriting.

Unlike its predecessor, the new album is expressed with a confident ease rather than pent up frustration. If Glow & Behold detailed the tumultuous break up period for YUCK, then Stranger Things sees the band reach a positively fresh stage of letting go.

For all of Stranger Things’ plus points – and there are many – it does occasionally get drawn into a sort of purgatory between the old and the new Yuck.

This third batch has something to prove, and Bloom makes the most of it, stutter-riffing his best Toadies impression on “Hearts in Motion” and sneaking the timeless gorgeousness of Sebadoh’s “Too Pure” into “Down.”

It vaults them back into the noise pop/shoegaze conversation, where they seem poised to stay for a good long while.

If we're talking Yuck 2.0, it's an improvement over Glow. The onerous production choices are gone. In that way, it echoes the first version of the band in a facile sense, and Yuck is still mining the same '90s influences.

This album is a far cry from the 90’s American college-radio rock of their Blumberg-indebted debut, but, for a seemingly make or break record, Stranger Things just doesn’t really take enough risks. 

There's an overemphasis on influences here that makes Stranger Things more recognizably likeable than imaginative.

Stranger Things deftly runs through musical trends once popular, then killed off and now in vogue again, like shoegaze and noodly Britpop. Aside from flailing a bit at the end, the London group’s third full-length hits its mark.

Fans are sure to find something charming about it, as Yuck remain a capable, enjoyable band. However, they seem to have lost the plot a bit with this one.