Review by Gimpleg
Yours Sincerely is Ska Punk International’s newest artist and following artists like Tape Girl and Kmoy, is releasing her own laptop ska album- Anna. Classifying this beautiful album as laptop ska might be an over-simplification (as labels tend to be) since only a few songs have ska influences, but that’s part of the beauty of the album. Yours Sincerely never appears to be held down to a single genre or influence as she tells her story across 10 beautiful tracks.
Anna is a deeply personal album addresses themes of depression, loneliness, isolation, and abandonment, while also including hope, optimism, and ultimately promise. Some songs from this album have the feeling of intimate entries from a diary while others are reminiscent of letters of advice to herself and to those who walk in her shoes.
In the opening track, “To My Fantasy”, Yours Sincerely expresses that she doesn’t want to run out of time. A feeling of impending doom and sadness fill the song, a nervous anxiety of what’s to come, and what is already lost, ending with ‘is this all my fantasy… is this all’. It feels so hopeless. But that is temporarily set aside for the next track “Wallflower Optimist”. This second track doesn’t pull punches when it starts, warning the listener that the world is dark and people are cruel. The end of this song is where the hope first begins. While it still reminds the listener that the narrator can’t help you, that you have to make it on your own, it closes with a very inspiring message- I believe in you.
The next two tracks are both incredible ska songs. “The Covers” features KMoy, Skamantha, and Tommy Obesa playing sax, organ, trombone, and trumpet in a song about running from demons that you can’t escape. If the thought of ska makes you think of mozzarella sticks for even a half of a second, you need to listen to this song to find out what ska is more often actually about. “Majesty” continues to press the themes of the album even deeper, with a beautiful ska track about abandonment and isolation. The foreshadowing in this song is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
While the ska influences in the album start to fade after this point, the themes in this album never do. Occasionally feeling like diary entries, memories, sadness, and loneliness. Each of these tracks is told over a beautiful soundtrack with an elegant voice that enthralls the listener and beckons you to take the journey through the narrator’s life.
Then the album does something that is absolutely incredible to help complete the journey. The penultimate song mirrors the intro song, sharing lyrics but this time with just vocals and keys over a single background note that makes the song feel hopeless. The final song also mirrors the second song, but with themes not lyrics. Once again, it tells of a world that is hell, but this time the positivity is palpable. Sincerely Yours has lived life, but came through stronger on the other side. This is the positive ending you always hope for. This world is hell, this world is tumbling down, but we’ve got each other now, and nothing’s gonna stop us.
Find the album everywhere here.
Music Shelf With Mustard 