ZOOMERCORE
Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind
Yves Tumor has always sought to show the beauty in the ugly or the mundane. It is even apparent in the artist’s name—the juxtaposition of Yves, a classical and regal french name often associated with the luxury designer YSL, conjoined with the word Tumor, a viscerally revolting word with the most negative of connotations. The artist is extremely adept at getting this point across, with one notable example being their ambient single Limerence that samples a mundane lo-fi conversation between lovers over the most gorgeous and serene piano loop. However, Yves has more tricks up his sleeve than ambient soundscapes. On their newest album, Heaven to a Tortured Mind, Yves finds a completely new method of expressing this idea—by reinventing himself as a glamorous god of sex and rock and roll.
There’s something to be said about an artist that can reinvent a dead genre. Psychedelia in recent years has degraded to little more than chorus and reverb (see: Tame Impala)— that is, until Heaven to a Tortured Mind. On their third studio album, Yves Tumor departs from their experimental and electronic past to revive the pitiful state of psychedelic art rock. Although by far the most accessible record from Yves, it sacrifices none of their creativity or vision, and instead proves that the genre can actually benefit from industrial/electronic movements that have risen to prominence since the presumed death of rock music.