yeule Enters Their Alt-Rock Era With A Scar-Themed Album Signed To Ninja Tune

yeule’s global dominance continues with a new album underway (Credit: Neil Krug)

When it comes to thriving Singaporean exports who are taking the world by storm, yeule is perched high atop that list. Not fettered by tiny city origins, the meteoric rise of yeule has seen the conceptual artist land on international labels like Bayonet Records and mega events like the Pitchfork Music Festival. Whether you’re enraptured by their metamorphosising sound or otherworldly visual directions, you can’t dismiss the disruptive appeal of the alternative musician.

yeule’s off-kilter originality has taken them far since debuting back in 2012, and that journey now hits another milestone with their latest album signed to Ninja Tune, sharing label street cred with past signees like Thundercat and Hiatus Kaiyote. Titled softscars, the album is a departure from yeule’s prior electronica/synth-pop/ambient musings, veering into uncharted realms of rock and punk to craft their newfound narrative. Without overshadowing yeule’s production chops, softscars also features collaborations from Mura Masa, Chris Greatti (Yves Tumor, Willow Smith), and Singapore’s very own Kin Leonn who’s been a frequent collaborator of yeule.

yeule’s visual artistry is just as mesmerising as their music (Credit: Vasso Vu)

softscars has begun to show its hand so far with two press singles. You have the recently-released “dazies” that exhibits this new edge of yeule with a shoegaze assault, barging through with wailing hooks and wall-of-sound stature. yeule’s processed vocals sift through like an AI trying to come to life, before arriving at a tender outro scrubbed clean of the preceding grit. And on “sulky baby” released earlier in May, you have a capsule of nostalgic alt-rock draped in a fuzzy dreamcoat, with more lullaby vocals serenading above a bed of guitars and mild glitchy accoutrements.

The album has been written to convey a series of scars penned by its inventive author. “Whether you’re healing from emotional trauma or a physical wound, time never heals a scar completely,” yeule shares on the album’s theme. “There’s no more pain, but you can still see the mark afterward. I have a deep feeling that the things my ancestors went through got passed down; there’s some trauma that just sticks. There was always decay and distortion in my life, there’s always been something wrong or ugly. So the scar reminds me that I’m being protected, and I should protect myself.”