Yuma Sun - 'Watch Us Burn' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. St. Louise

2. Give Me Fever

3. Josephine

4. Violets To Stone

5. The Judas Tree

6. Mary

7. King Of Light

8. War Has Begun

9. The Hospital

10. High Road

11. Watch Us Burn

I have a confession dear readers, I've never been a fan of Westerns. With the exception of Django Unchained, I always found they dragged on and took too long to get anywhere. It was this sort of feeling I felt as 'Watch Us Burn' carried on. The Western movie influence was apparent throughout, and after a while I found myself checking my playlist over and over wondering when it would end. Musically, the album is sound enough, with all musicians on the track able to produce some well refined songs, without really doing anything too drastic. At times when you think the musicians will experiment further with the tracks they're creating, by going a slightly different direction, it reverts back to the basic style that permeates all the tracks. Vocally, there is a familiar twang of a foreign band recording in a language that is not their first. An American sounding track, yet with a distinct sharp edge which is very familiar with people in Germany. It actually adds a certain something to each track. If I'm honest though, this was an album that didn't do anything for me at all. The strongest track for me, St. Louise, reminded me of early efforts by Franz Ferdinand, with some fun, punchy guitar parts following each chorus that you could see being a live favourite. But with the exception of a few tracks, from there on in, the album is slow and atmospheric in nature, but unappealing to this reviewer. I definitely can see where the band were going with what they were trying to produce, but there wasn't enough variety to keep me interested, or experimentation of the genre they're playing to add anything that would grab me and keep me wanting to listen over and over.