TRACK REVIEW: YUNGBLUD - cotton candy

TRACK REVIEW:

YUNGBLUD

cotton candy

8.6/10

The track, cotton candy, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEb2p1WN9O0

The album, weird!, is available via:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5M1cOYkcEY6fGNUyod2pvx?si=QnMoBGkOQ5G1eR2zD4g5SQ

RELEASE DATE:

4th December, 2020

GENRES:

Alternative Rock/Pop Punk

ORIGIN:

Doncaster, U.K.

LABELS:

Locomotion/Interscope

PRODUCERS:

Yungblud/Zakk Cervini/Omer Fedi/Mike Crossey/Matt Schwartz

TRACKLISTING:

teresa

cotton candy

strawberry lipstick

mars

superdeadfriends

love song

god save me, but don't drown me out

ice cream man

weird!

charity

acting like that (ft. Machine Gun Kelly)

it's quiet in beverly hills

the freak show

__________

I have a lot to cover off…

when it comes to YUNGBLUD and this review! The Doncaster-born artist (real name Dominic Richard Harrison) has just released his second album, weird!, and it has been getting some positive press from many people. I will discuss the changes and steps between his two studio albums but, as one listens to the themes addressed in his music and sees promotional photos of YUNGBLUD, you can get a sense that his teenage years might have been tough at times; other struggling to accept him, and there being these times when he hid his real self. I want to start off by discussing how Harrison was misunderstood as a teenager. I guess we are all misunderstood at that age, but it seemed like it was particularly tough for an aspiring artist whose head was being turned by some icons of music and fashion. This interview from INSIDER reveals more about who was especially inspiring for Harrison:

“When Harrison adopted the stage name as a teenager, he felt angry and misunderstood. He wanted to wear makeup like Lou Reed and pink like Vivian Westwood. He had a punkish, '70s rock n' roll spirit oozing through his pores, but didn't feel like it was "cool" or accepted.

"I had spent so much time being told that I was better to be seen and not heard. So with my music, I just called out, 'Is anybody out there? Is there anybody out there to relate to me and have a conversation with me?' It turned out there was a lot of f---ing people out there in the end," he explains, grinning”.

Whilst there were some eye-opening and compelling people who were starting to shape a young man who would go on to be YUNGBLUD, it is evident that, too, his early years in Doncaster were not all that smooth and happy. Reading an interview that he conducted with The Guardian, and one’s heart as to go out to the teenage Dominic Harrison:

“Growing up in Doncaster was both “great and fucking awful”. He was bullied remorselessly, even by his teachers who would single him out for his sartorial choices in front of the class. “I had a lot of friends but in a room full of people I would feel totally alone,” he says. “I had my first suicidal thoughts at 13.” His family – whom he describes as “The Waltons meets Peaky Blinders” – were supportive. “My mum used to dye my hair when I was five and my dad was a guitar dealer so he’d seen it all.” It was a household full of music; his grandad (“a fucking nutcase”) performed with T Rex in the 60s, while his maternal grandmother loved Rod Stewart so much she told Harrison he was her boyfriend. “I was kind of in that sensibility of rock’n’roll my whole life,” he smiles”.

Whilst there was definite strain and darkness in his life as a teenager, music was also very important. Maybe it was a way of channelling his emotions and trying to make sense of some of his darkest thoughts. I think the artists that we discover and love as children can be pivotal when it comes to the rest of our life and how we go about discovering music. For the aspiring and curious Harrison, quite a varied array of interesting artists entered his life. Taken from a recent interview with NME, one can understand why YUNGBLUD is such an eclectic, exciting and variegated creation:

“He grew up in and around his dad’s guitar shop in his hometown where he found his way around guitars, as well as taking up the drums. He found early influence in classic rock (The Beatles, The Clash, Bob Dylan) and through discovery gave it his own twist. He became obsessed with the intensity of Joy Division and their haunting frontman Ian Curtis, the flow of rappers Busta Rhymes and Eminem and the theatrics of emo kings My Chemical Romance and Marilyn Manson”.

It would have been interesting observing Harrison as a youngster discovering these artists and seeing how they impacted him. Maybe these artists gave voice and a sense of comfort to someone who was dealing with some tough times and trying to figure out who he was. Maybe there wasn’t a lot of opportunity in Doncaster for someone who was clearly influenced by music and wanted to follow in the footsteps of some of his idols. When YUNGBLUD spoke with Honey Punch Mag, he was asked about that transition from listening to music to adopting it more as a calling:

“So, how old were you when you started making music that is most like what you’re doing now?

Weird, man! I moved out to London at 16 and got very lost and I was that young musician. It’s very easy to get distracted. When you come down from a rainy town in Northern England to London, a lot of people can sit back and give you their opinion of what you should be. And at 16, you say “oh my god I’ll just do whatever. As long as it gets me played on Radio 1.” That just became vapid to me. Then I met a management team that gave a shit and wanted to change the way music and artists would be developed. I remember them speaking to me and saying “well this doesn’t reflect the music you’ve been listening to your whole life. Is this reflective of your personality?” about the music I was writing at the time. I was like you’re right. I would talk about my opinions on the world and whatever because, again, I always had so much energy and was so opinionated. Then I just locked myself away, figured out who YUNGBLUD was probably at the end of 2016, so not that long ago. At that time, I felt like nobody has been straight up enough for me right now. No one is representing a generation that is vastly growing. Our generation are not idiots. We’re not just bratty kids rebelling against the system, that’s a naïve way of looking at us. We’re so tapped into the modern world today. We see a future we want to be a part of. We see a liberal world we want to move towards. But it’s been held back by a generation that don’t understand us or aren’t quite ready for the world to go to that place yet and I needed my music to represent that because that part of young people has not been catered for in music”.

I will get to reviewing a song from YUNGBLUD’s new album in good time, but there are things that one needs to know about him – I shall drop the ‘Harrison’ bit and call him YUNGBLUD, as I am talking about him now more as an established artist (and not about his childhood). A.D.H.D. is something that afflicts quite a few artists and it can be quite a hard condition to understand and discuss. Maybe it aids creativity in a certain way, but one also feels that it can be quite a barrier and burden at times too. In the same Honey Punch Mag interview, the topic of YUNGBLUD’s A.D.H.D. arose:

“You touched on it before about “Medication” but is there a story behind it? I read that you struggle with ADHD. How does that affect your everyday life as a musician?

It’s honestly the best. I can never switch off and I tend to just jump around. But a lot of people misunderstood that when I was growing up. They misunderstood my energy and being very opinionated. People are afraid of something they don’t understand and someone with ADHD is something outside of the box of normal. I think that’s kind of what my music’s about. People also don’t like being confronted by other opinions especially by someone that’s younger than them. It’s kind of it. “Medication” also talks about growing up in a heavily medicated society where mental health is dealt with by just putting someone on pills because that’s the easy thing to do”.

Just to tip back to growing up and, though we know YUNGBLUD now and have seen him develop into this bold and ambitious artist, perhaps there were moments during his younger years where he was not being encouraged by his friends or he felt that he was alone. It must have been strange for YUNGBLUD dressing up in lipstick and these different clothes and seeing how different he was to others around him. As we learn from an interview in Rolling Stone, his mother did provide a sense of encouragement and support:

“Even if she wasn’t super-enthused about her son’s earliest songs, Harrison’s mom encouraged him to continue exploring a fashion sense that bent the masculine norms of the people around him. For school discos, she would help him straighten his hair and let him wear lipstick, nail polish, and skinny jeans, similar to the look he’s sporting right now. Tonight he’ll be able to look out from the stage and see a packed crowd of teenagers dressed up like him, but at the time Harrison felt unwelcome among his classmates, preferring to hang out with teachers instead.

When he began studying theatre at London’s Arts Educational School, he still had trouble fitting in, but he found solace in playing music, imitating the bands and rappers he grew up on like My Chemical Romance and N.W.A. A manager reached out to him, but felt that Harrison’s leftist political lyrics would make it difficult for him to get played on radio. Wanting to make money, the teenager decided to listen”.

I want to highlight relationships and how they have shaped YUNGBLUD. I think love and sexuality defines a lot of his work, so it is revealing and interesting reading about how he perceives love and what his romantic ideal is. Bad breakups and heartache can lead to some wonderful music but, like all artists, YUNGBLUD is looking for kinship and someone he can trust; someone who has his back. I was reading an interview from INSIDER - and there was a section that stood out to me:

“”’I want luck, I want love, sharing earphones on the bus and wake up next to you in Glasgow,’” he continues, quoting the song’s second verse. “That’s kind of my idea of what it means to be loved. If I was to paint a picture of a kind of love I want, it’s that.”

“I imagine an indie alternative couple. You know what I mean? Boy-boy, girl-girl, boy-girl, they-they, whatever you identify as, sitting together on a rainy bus, and it’s so hot inside that the windows are foggy, and they’re sharing earphones, listening to music”.

I offer: Like a scene in a coming-of-age movie.

“Completely! That’s what this song is, because to ‘come of age’ isn’t to grow up,” he agrees. “You can come of age at 85, you know what I mean? You can figure out what your life meant at 85 or you can figure it out at 21”.

Many might know YUNGBLUD because of his relationship with U.S. artist Halsey. The two were photographed together a lot and there were stories in the press about them. On paper, they share a lot of similarities regarding sexuality and struggles they have both faced in their life. They seemed to be a very close couple who had some common ground, and there was this definite charge and bond between them. Not to go into the breakup and the reasons (perhaps) why, but YUNGBLUD talked about the split in this interview with INSIDER:

“He says he got his heart broken when he and Halsey split; she's said she wrote the tender love song "Finally // Beautiful Stranger" about Harrison, while "Forever ... (is a Long Time)" shows her panicking and "sabotaging" the relationship.

"It's weird enough experiencing heartbreak for the first time, or nearly losing a family member, under normal circumstances," Harrison explains. "It's also a very weird, strange thing, the first moment you walk to the shop and someone's following you around with a camera."

He describes the dual experiences of trauma and fame as a state of constant anxiety, because he felt there was nowhere he could go to "escape" his own thought spiral — especially because he refuses to put on a mask for his fans”.

There are a few things I need to cover before coming to the actual review, as YUNGBLUD is a compelling artist and I think we get to learn more about his music and lyrical approach when we dig deeper and do not just judge songs on the surface. Artists such as Harry Styles and YUNGBLUD have been accused of queerbaiting – where creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ representation. It must have been quite galling and upsetting for YUNGBLUD to be accused of such a thing. In this interview with The Guardian, he addressed those claims:

“Like Harry Styles and Matty Healy, Harrison has been accused of queerbaiting; using aspects of queer culture in performative ways. He counters that his sexuality “changes every day” and his message has always been “if you’re gay be proud of it, if you’re bisexual be proud and if you don’t know then be proud of that, too”. If he had to define himself, he’s “probably pansexual” but prefers not be labelled. “Just because my past three relationships have been with girls doesn’t mean I didn’t have sex with a guy last night”.

It has been quite a hard road for YUNGBLUD regarding his sexual identity and figuring out who he is. Not only has his relationship and breakup with Halsey helped him to find some clarity and sense of identity – and that experience of a close relationship and breakup has helped him grow -, but I feel that YUNGBLUD has found some clarity and belonging from his loyal fans. I think fans of artists can be this comfort blanket and trusting shoulder; they also can help provide answers to them and show that they are not alone.

When YUNGBLUD spoke with Attitude, it seems like his committed fans were instrumental regarding his identity and figuring who he was - he also mentions Halsey’s importance in his life:

“Yungblud credits his LGBTQ fans for helping him to figure out his own sexuality, as he collects the Gamechanger Award at the 2020 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar.

Britain’s biggest pop-punk star, real name Dominic Harrison, says he has learnt so much from the community, and now feels comfortable describing himself as pansexual and polyamorous.

“I probably would say now, I am polyamorous. Before I didn’t f***ing know what I was,” he starts. “I was meeting people and learning… by meeting them and talking about sexuality and gender, I [was] going, ‘Oh my f***ing God, maybe I’m this, if I’m going to be f***ing close to anything on the spectrum.’”

“I’m still quite weird about going, ‘This is what I am,’ to the world because I’ve never really said it,” he admits. “I was excited about this interview to talk about that.”

Asked if he now considers himself to be a part of the LGBTQ community, the ‘Cotton Candy’ hitmaker responds: “I know it’s such a massive statement to me, but probably, yeah, I think I would. I haven’t said that yet because I don’t want some mad article everywhere going: ‘Yungblud comes out as f***ing pan[sexual]!'

The 23-year-old Doncaster lad used to date bisexual American singer Halsey, and he stresses that he “owe[s] a lot to that girl, in terms of my growth and my sexuality, in terms of everything.”

“She taught me so much, even about my sexuality,” he insists. “The conversations we would have at night, she has such knowledge because she’s been openly bisexual for years… it’s so funny when you’re dating someone, yet [you] owe them a lot towards your sexuality; even though she is not a man, she made me go, ‘Oh my God, I probably like am into that”.

Let’s move on to the subject of Rock. Some might say that the genre has undergone a shift over the past couple of decades, which has meant that it has been watered down and it is not as appealing as it once was. Others offer the opinion that Rock has been cross-pollinated with other sounds and it is a more interesting and richer genre which has pushed away from the mainstream. Definitely, Rock music now seems more gender-balanced: so many strong and engaging women are making some incredible Rock, and they are being acknowledged more than they would have been years ago. In terms of modern-day Rock stars, YUNGBLUD is shaping up to be someone who definitely has the energy, chops and attitude to be someone who sticks in the memory for a long time. I want to go back to the NME interview, where the subject of him as a modern Rock star was explored:

“If you’re meeting Yungblud, you’ll hear him before you see him. He’s excitable and loud, but in the friendliest of ways. If you don’t know him from Adam, he’ll endeavour to become your best mate by the end of your time together. His thoughts and energy race from one thing to the next, and if you put an idea or person into his head, he’ll just inhabit it as his own. When he uses the term “rock ’n’ roll” in lieu of a pause in conversation, I joke that he sounds like Liam Gallagher. In response, he assumes the frontman’s crooked pose and belts out a couple of lines of Oasis”.

He’d grown up admiring the androgynous stylings of The Cure frontman Robert Smith, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and David Bowie. The first time he wore a dress at his next door neighbour Annabelle’s house, aged 12, he felt liberated and just like his heroes”.

When we spoke to you last summer you told us that “rock’n’roll music is on life support”. Do you still think that?

“I think it’s very much alive right now. I always knew that it would come back because rock’n’roll is starting to become relevant again with young people. Post Malone just did a song with Ozzy! It’s been reinvented for a new generation.”

Does it bother you if people think you’re not an ‘authentic’ rock star?

“At the end of the day people will say, he’s just playing to tracks and that it just sounds like noise to me, but you know what? Your dad was saying that to him about Oasis, his dad about that for The Beatles and his dad about Chuck Berry. People think I’m not authentic or that I’m a bratty kid just shouting about things but that’s fine. If there’s no pushback, there’s no push forward. If I wanted to be normal or liked all the time, I’d work in a cake shop. I ain’t got all the answers, I ain’t Mother Theresa! I’m completely full of contradictions, but that’s my generation. That’s people!”

I will come to his new album, weird!, in good time, as I feel this is the album where YUNGBLUD is truly himself and has come on as an artist. That said, his 2018 debut, 21st Century Liability, is a very good album where YUNGBLUD announced himself with some very powerful songs that tackled some difficult and emotive subjects. Maybe he feels that his latest album is truer to himself, but I have heard his debut and it is very striking and filled with promise! In this interview, we discover more about his stunning debut:

“21st Century Liability is an album built on outrage, political confrontation and emotion. Reflecting on the album’s creation, how do you feel now? Was writing the album somewhat of a cathartic experience?

Firstly, I’m just so excited to get it out. It’s been amazing; I’ve literally not slept in two weeks because – oh my god – my debut album is coming out. It’s amazing. And 100% – it's literally an accumulation of all the emotions and anger I’ve felt kind of all my life leading up to this. It’s been such an incredible release to just get them out into the atmosphere and to be able to connect with people with my music, you know? I just want this album to be an outlet for people that feel like their voices can’t be heard or they can’t be themselves.

The album has some incredibly important themes – sexual assault and consent, gun control, the effect of technology on our emotional well-being for examples. Do you hope that talking about these issues in your music will increase the awareness of them to your audience? Has that always been a goal of the YUNGBLUD project?

I think I mix together talking about issues with energy because there is nothing more powerful than energy for me. And at the end of the day, young people are so intelligent now – so It's so incredible to see the reaction from them, and the messages that I get across my DMs. Like, young people are relating to what I’m saying because we’re all feeling it. We have access to so much information nowadays. We’re not just young kids rebelling against the system because that sounds naive. We have outlets to so much information that we’ve become so clued open to the world.

Ultimately, I don’t want to tell people what to think, you know, because I’ve not got all the answers – I’m just simply saying what I think. I just want to encourage people, young people especially, to say what they think, because the more we talk about it, the more chance it's got of getting heard. It’s so funny because people say just cause I’m talking about politics, young people are gonna switch off. But no, god no, like, politics has never been more relevant in the world, so I just can't believe more people aren’t talking about it in popular music, It baffles me.

What do you want people to take from your music and its themes?

I want to mix it up and I want it to be fun. You know, I do want it to be “oh this song’s an absolute banger and I can’t get it out of my head, but it makes me, it gets in my head, and it makes me feel empowered, and it relates to me on a level that is real.” I think, to me, that all I just wanna be is real. Because to me, if it is real, I will resonate with it and if I can affect someone in their personal life from my music and what I’m saying, that’s the best thing in the world”.

I will discuss the shifts between his debut album and weird!, but it does seem that 2019 was a transformative year for YUNGBLUD in terms of his confidence as a writer/performer and a sense of solidification regarding his musical and personality identity. In the NME interview, we discover when the music started to gel for him and why last year was a big one:

“The music started to come together in late 2017, with Arctic Monkeys-sized tunes ‘King Charles’ and ‘I Love You, Will You Marry Me?’ breeding a grassroots fandom in the North of England and in mainland Europe. He landed a deal with Geffen Records (Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses) and Interscope (Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey) to release his debut album ‘21st Century Liability’ last summer. It didn’t make much of a dent in the charts, though for him that wasn’t really the goal. “Making a connection is so much more important to me than going ten times platinum,” he says

2019 has been Yungblud’s breakthrough year. His single ‘11 Minutes’, featuring Halsey and Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, opened him up to a new audience, and his friendship with US rapper and Eminem-beefer Machine Gun Kelly (“he’s a real one”) netted him joint-single ‘I Think I’m OKAY’, a raucous collaboration that gave him his first whiff of a hit”.

There has clearly been some evolution between 21st Century Liability, and weird! I suppose every artist is learning when they put out their debut album - there is a strengthening and sense of growth when it comes to the second album. When he spoke with Alt Press, YUNGBLUD was asked about the changes between his debut and where he is now:

“Did you feel like the writing and recording of your sophomore album was more liberating than your debut?

Yes. The reaction to my debut was liberating [and] the realization that there were people out there like me, but this record was so special to me because, again, I got to talk about how I feel. I got to open my fucking soul, and I know it’s going to connect to [the fans] because it’s about them. The songs are stories I’ve heard. “mars” is about a young trans girl I met in Maryland who told me a story. She had on green lipstick and a green matching duffle coat, and I remember it. And she told me the story that her parents couldn’t understand that she wasn’t a boy. She was a girl and always had been a girl, and they thought it was a phase. They didn’t understand that she was born into the wrong body. She told me she wanted to take her parents to a YUNGBLUD show because the community that we were building would make them see that there were other kids like her and other people like her.

To cut a long story short, she came to the show with her parents, and her parents saw the passion, the community and the simple reluctance to be anything other than what you are. They fucking took her out and said, “We get it. We’re sorry, and we apologize. We’re going to help you through [this] transition.” A story like that is what this album means. YUNGBLUD isn’t me—it’s always ours, and it makes me so proud to belong to a community. You can uplift people like that and change people’s perceptions and make people accept their fucking children”.

The last thing I want to explore before coming to a song review is how YUNGBLUD has come from a challenging childhood, through to teenager years where he was figuring out who he truly was and, now, he is someone who is near the mainstream and (he is) a big name! It must feel quite scary looking back and seeing what lies ahead. That said, YUNGBLUD is not as recognised and established as some other big names in music. In the interview from The Guardian, we get a sort of biography and highlighting of YUNGBLUD as a rising star - and why he stands out:

“Despite an impressive 8.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Harrison has yet to fully infiltrate the mainstream; his only dents on the UK Top 100 so far have been via collaborations with the likes of his ex-girlfriend Halsey (11 Minutes) and fellow pouty anger merchants Bring Me the Horizon (Obey) – but that’s sort of the point. From the start, Yungblud has, he says, been about “representation for the unrepresented” and creating a safe space for life’s so-called weirdos, a nod to one of his idols, Lady Gaga. His hyperactive songs, careening between bubblegum pop, goth-tinged emo and throat-lacerating rock, read like a checklist of modern pop tropes, tackling everything from mental health (Medication) to sexual fluidity (Cotton Candy) to, like, not listening to your parents (Parents). Earlier this year, London’s Evening Standard called him “the poster boy of Gen Z”, while Dave Grohl has hailed him as the future of rock’n’roll. In Harrison, his fans have found a charismatic leader who can make the most trite of soundbites – at one point today he describes TikTok as “punk as fuck” – sound like a call to arms”.

There are a lot of good and arresting songs on weird! that I was keen to review, but I have plumped for Cotton Candy. Alongside this song, Strawberry Lipstick, and Ice Cream Man also hint at sweetness and something more child-like in their titles. Opening with some twanging bass and a stuff beat, Cotton Candy starts with quite a kick and sense of intent. Whilst YUNGBLUD’s voice is not as gritty and varied as a lot of Rock artists, I feel it is very strong, and he manages to marry Pop and Rock without seeming too diluted or lacking in potency. It is clear, from the first verse, that sexuality and physical exploration are a big theme – and something that is covered and examined throughout weird! There is a lot of vivid imagery and honesty in that opening verse: “Tallulah knows that she's not the only one I'm holding close/On the low, I get vertigo from body overdose/So tell me your name and tell me your problems, I got the same/And I wanna get stuck between your teeth like cotton candy/So you remember me darlin'”. Cotton Candy was released as a single back in October, and it is one of the most memorable and wonderful songs from weird! The video looks like it was quite fun to shoot! I guess there were precautions taken regarding COVID-19 but, in the video, we see YUNGBLUD cuddle up to a number of women and, as the camera shoots from above, there are a number of couples embracing and kissing. It is a bright and eye-opening video where YUINGBLUD is clearly having a ball - but the song definitely has some depth and a catchy chorus. The refrain of “I'm losin' myself in you/In you, in you, in you, in you, I know/I'm losin' myself in you/In you, in you, in you, in you, I know” hooks into the brain, and one wonders whether there is someone particular YUNGBLUD is referring to when he projects those words.

I do like how there is a mixture of something quite deep in the lyrics, combined with sections that are shallower and throwaway. Maybe this is what we expect from our Rock artists: something sexual and quite lacking in depth, but we also want to know that there is a true heart and soul beneath the surface. The production on Cotton Candy is quite polished, but I do not think that it takes anything away from the song. The hero is seen dressed as an angel in the video, and he has attracted the lust and attention of a young woman. There is a lot of excess and passion in the video, and one has to go back and watch a few times to take in the scenes and various memorable images. There is one verse that caught my eye: “I figured out that the modern world is turnin' the wrong way 'round/There's somethin' about the way our bedsheets turn religion upside down/So we just have sex to solve all our problems, let's do it again/And I wanna get stuck between your teeth like cotton candy/So you remember me darlin'”. When thinking of a muse and inspiration for this song, one might look the way of Halsey…but it is hard to say. Clearly, she had an impact on him and, when the song was written, maybe they were still an item. I guess it does not help to speculate but I can feel some of her essence and affect in the song. Whilst Cotton Candy strays more on the Pop side of the fence than the Rock one – due to the vocal sound and tone/feel of the song and production – there is a sense of rebellion and controversy through the lyrics and video that shows YUNGBLUD is an artist who has Rock proclivities and credentials! There is a lot to enjoy throughout weird!, but I wanted to highlight Cotton Candy, as it is my favourite track from the pack. I would encourage people to listen to the album as there is a lot to enjoy.

I shall close things soon but, as he has just brought out a great album and these songs need a bigger stage in order to come to life, I can imagine YUNGBLUD is eager to get on the road and reconnect with his admiring and growing fanbase! That will come in good time but, like many artists this year, YUNGBLUD delayed the release of weird! I In the interview with Alt Press, the album’s delayed release was brought up:

“The album was originally slated to be released in November, and it was pushed back, but I actually think that the album is coming at a very revolutionary time in the world, politically, socially, the awareness that everyone is so in tune with now. Do you think that delaying it has had a positive effect on the release?

I think it has. I was so sad and anxious to let my fanbase down because I had to push it back, but with the pandemic and the kinds of vinyl houses that said we might not be able to get it done. This has gotten bigger than I ever fucking expected. I’m talking about shipping to Argentina and shipping to China, shipping to Australia. What the fuck? This whole idea of some places maybe might not get the stuff when they’re supposed to didn’t fly with me. This fanbase and this community is my blood and my heart. And if I tell them something’s going to be there, it’s got to be there”.

If you have not investigated the brilliant weird! or you are new to YUNGBLUD, then give him a follow and check out the album. It is a confident, compelling and excellent album. The young artist has come on a long way in a couple of years, and it will be exciting to see how he grows and how he continues to develop as an artist. It has been quite a tough last year or so for YUNGBLUD, but he has ended 2020 with a triumphant and rich sophomore album! On the strength of weird!, it seems that YUNGBLUD will…