Album Review: Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow

As I begin to extend myself into album reviews, I like to think that there’ll be a time when I look back on this album and think “it didn’t get any worse than this”. I highly doubt there are many worse albums out there, with Yonaka’s debut being the most generic, boring piece to come from any indie band in a long, long while. That’s a term that expresses itself in every song, with the overarching theme and message being that generic lyrics and the same four chords for eleven arduous songs is all you need to crack out an album.  

The greats of the indie music scene have provided some solid debut albums. A first release provides room for a band to cement themselves within their style. The Strokes struck it out of the park with Is This It, Arctic Monkeys will be remembered for their strong debut through Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and who can forget The Killers’ extraordinary work with Hot Fuss. Albums that fans and critics alike of the indie scene can all agree have left their mark on the modern age of independent or alternatively made music. Yonaka’s Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow misses a trick here by not cementing itself as anything but pure garbage. 

Opening with the truly mediocre Bad Company, which hides ineffective lyrics underneath an uneventful bassline. Singer and frontwoman, Theresa Jarvis, has certainly got some singing chops available to her, and her vocal range is impressive. A solid shame then that she doesn’t manage to present such a range throughout the album, with a handful of glimmering hopes here and there, the album is a slapdash approach to a group of songs that could’ve sounded so much better with just a few changes. 

Take Lose Our Heads, the second song on the album, for instance, a song where in the video the band are losing their minds and headbanging to what can only be described as soft pop. Jarvis’ lyrics improve here and make for a song that is forgettable yet enjoyable. That’s about as good as the album gets though, never peaking past forgettable solid and listenable. For only two songs we receive something that could be described as “music”, the rest sounds like the noises a turtle makes when its head gets stuck in those plastic six pack holders. 

Witty lyrics are nowhere to be found, the songs all consist of every tried and tested, formulaic theory and idea to come from the independent music scene. By the time the fifth song comes to its feverishly dull ending, it becomes clear that Yonaka are certainly complacent in how they craft their music. Backdrops of guitar riffs and drum beats that sound identical in mostly every song. When the music begins to pick up, the lyrics falter, and when the lyrics sound like they’re on the verge of being interesting, the music takes a nosedive.  

Nothing sets Yonaka out as anything new or original. They don’t sound interesting, their limited repertoire is predictable and clunky, at times it borders on disgraceful. You’d get more musical prose and satisfaction from an airhorn or a plate smashing. Yonaka certainly have the generic sounds of the modern indie band nailed down. Whether or not that is in fact what they were aiming for is beyond me. They’ve certainly got the range to stretch themselves into something more unique and interesting, but it looks like we’ll be waiting a while longer for that to come anywhere close to happening.