Yacht
I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler, Downtown
Nothing to do with either the second wave Stiff label band Yachts or the “yacht-rock” of Robert Palmer, the duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L Evans operate under the tongue-in-cheek acronym Young Americans Challenging High Technology, and the music is only one facet of a conceptual pop package that encompasses a belief system and a selection of graphics. Think Paul Morley writing about Dollar in the NME and then helping create the ZTT label and you are on the right track.
The music owed a great deal to that era as well, the opener Miles and Miles over eight minutes of Soft Cell remix, Hologram pilfering the synthesised vocal descend from Bowie’s Fame and echoes of Eurythmics and Pet Shop Boys all over the shop. But their 80s ears also follow the adage that talent borrows but genius steals in clear references to the B52s on War On Women and Ringtone’s excellent declamatory chorus: “Ringtone! Ringtone! I’m calling, look at your phone!”, a track that also recalls Kraftwerk’s Pocket Calculator.
There is also more than a nod to Madonna in her chart-topping prime on final track The Entertainment, while our own We Were Promised Jetpacks should plainly cover the title track immediately.
Keith Bruce
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