Yaeji

WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던

BY Mathias PageauPublished Apr 1, 2020

9
Yaeji's music always feels so personal. Whether she's covering artists like Drake and Mall Grab — probably the first time these to have appeared in the same sentence — or weaving her own compositions, the New York-based artist inserts her emotions and her humour in every fold of her tracks.
 
In a press release, Kathy Yaeji Lee explains how her upbringing influenced the music she makes today. Growing up in various countries, placed in odd cultural contexts, she stopped trying to make sense of things and started embracing the flow. Reflecting that, her new mixtape is a walking contradiction, epically introverted, yet shining through its collaboration. Hushed, yet dripping with contagious attitude.
 
It probably doesn't escape the dance music auteur that she's using a genre designed to dissolve inhibition to underscore what are basically poetic diary entries. Her lead single, "WAKING UP DOWN" finds her playfully charting her self-care routine, which includes waking up early, hydrating and cooking.
 
Like most songs on the album, the song's arrangements are moving away from the delicate left-field house Yaeji is best known for and exploring eclectic breakbeat sonorities, encompassing anything from noisy industrial bursts ("IN THE MIRROR 거울") to uptempo jungle drums ("NEVER SETTLING DOWN").
 
WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던,  is a fascinating album where creative impulses and naiveté are filtered through a strong sense of aesthetics with newfound confidence. It's the sound of a unique artist finding her footing and stepping in the zone.
(XL Recordings)

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