RENOWNED for his adventurous hybrid of off-kilter psychedelic indie-pop, P-Funk grooves and sumptuous soul, Yellow Days applies the seductive allure of his captivating voice to stories of millennial angst and existentialism. It’s a style that has attracted fans including fellow mavericks Tyler, The Creator and Tom Waits, plus a like-minded collaborator in the shape of Mac DeMarco. Now Yellow Days embraces a grander conceptual framework with his upcoming third album ‘HOTEL HEAVEN’, which will be released on April 5th. He also shares a first taste of the record in the shape of its first single, ‘MRS MIDNIGHT’.
Yellow Days welcomes you into ‘HOTEL HEAVEN’. It’s a luxuriant escape of affluence, indulgence and decadence: where the jaded, confused and addicted go to live out there mediocre hedonistic lives situated in the clouds separated from a burning planet beneath them. Its concierge is an all-knowing matriarch known as God, who spends her downtime between shifts chain-smoking and typing eviscerating picture postcard portraits of its guests.
Gradually it becomes clear that the hotel’s surface sheen masks something altogether darker and more complicated: think ‘The White Lotus’ by way of ‘The Shining’, accompanied by surreal, larger-than-life visuals inspired by ‘Twin Peaks’, the classic 1971 version of ‘Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory’ and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘The Holy Mountain’.
Sonically, this cosmic concept album combines the lo-fi aesthetic of Tame Impala and the elastic funk grooves of Sly Stone with the emotional grit of Plastic Ono Band-era John Lennon to create a thrilling antidote to auto-tuned pop blandness. Yet for such an ambitious work, its creative process was heavily streamlined. Yellow Days recorded the entire album in his flat in Brick Lane, east London, belting out his distinctive vocal talent, playing every instrument and programming all of its drums.
Yellow Days – aka George van den Broek – says, “‘HOTEL HEAVEN’ represents fake comfort in all its forms, this whole bullshit idea of luxury where nothing is real. I wanted to write about everything that is happening right now – this TikTok age where everyone wants to be famous. It’s also a big 360 of my life and career to date. I wanted to get away from everything I’d done before, wash my face and start afresh.”
Yellow Days today presents the first chapter of ‘HOTEL HEAVEN’ in the shape of ‘MRS MIDNIGHT’. His narrator is just as much of a character as the subject of its title: a couple whose flourishing love is really just fleeting lust. They shared a good time, but good times aren’t meant to last. Yellow Day’s voice is the star of the show as he moves effortlessly between full-voiced soul and a charismatic, barely enunciated drawl. The music is just as irresistible, psyche-pop with a jazzy undercurrent and a piano motif that becomes almost hypnotic in its repetition.
