If you were surprised by Yumi Zouma’s embracing of guitar-centric sounds on their recent singles, you’re not alone. The group’s newly released fifth album No Love Lost to Kindness opens with a 007-esque guitar riff that wound up setting the groundwork for everything that follows, as each subsequent song seems to remove the band further from their synthpop origins. “When fans kept telling us that the early rock-song singles were a departure from our indie-pop roots, we would tell them, ‘Just wait until you hear ”Cowboy Without a Clue,”’” the band shares with us in their track-by-track breakdown of the record.
From the beginning, the MO for No Love Lost to Kindness was always about shifting toward something bigger, more anthemic than earworm. Yumi Zouma use terms like “rocky” and “bold” to describe the shift in sound from their “dreamy” past material, even if the end result is every bit as warm and accessible as anything they’ve made in the past. Yet No Love features more intriguing nooks and crannies seemingly inspired by the seasoned band’s touring and studio experiences and all the inside jokes and shared playlists that those entail—at one point they’re paying homage to both Macy Gray and Nokia brick phones on a single song, and later they’re paying respect to their time spent in Chicago, the City of Love (well, that’s what I’ve always called it, anyway).
The record’s lyrics feel just as playfully scattered as the music behind it, opening with a certain rage fueled by encountering a disgraced politician IRL after they’ve left the public eye, and closing with perhaps the first-ever anthem for artsy kids and jocks alike. The band’s sophisti-pop breakup songs truly feel like a thing of the past on No Love Lost to Kindness—from here on out, it seems, the band is all about sitar-laced cosmic love songs that don’t take the human race’s space-colonization failures for granted.
With the record out today via Nettwerk, stream along and find the band’s full track-by-track breakdown below.
1. “Cross My Heart and Hope to Die”
Probably our most riff-heavy song we've ever written. We start the song off with a chord reminiscent of James Bond—a funny moment in the studio, which actually ended up being the perfect opener. We saw an ex–Prime Minister in the lobby of the hotel we were staying in, and while we did have thoughts of giving him a piece of our mind, we channeled it into this song instead! This is also a very unique track in that it has Josh, Christie, and Charlie singing in the pre-choruses, which is something we’ve never done before. It was also something we wrote very quickly—it was mostly wrapped up after one day in the studio in New York. Josh then added the outro when we were doing post-production stuff at Damon Albarn’s studio in London.
2. “Bashville on the Sugar”
This one is a bit of a love song for New York’s subway. JB has lived there for over 10 years, so the band has spent a lot of time underground. As kids from New Zealand, it’s pretty amazing that you can bop around so easily, and as everyone knows, it’s a world of its own down there. A very bad place to run into your ex, crush, or anyone that you have complicated feelings about—there’s nowhere to go! It’s also one of our most chaotic songs, especially in terms of rhythm and percussion; I guess the drum ’n’ bass type feel is proof that you can never truly deviate too far from your roots when you’re from New Zealand. One other interesting quirk is that Christie wrote the low harmony of the chorus first as the main melody. It wasn’t until she was doing additional layers in the studio that she came up with the higher harmony that’s now the main hook.
3. “Drag”
This one was born from the very initial sessions for the record that we had. We spent an incredible week in Mexico City between North American tour dates, holed up at the studio Lucerna Records. This one feels most emblematic of what we were trying to achieve with the album: the instrumentation came quickly and instantly felt like it captured the larger, more anthemic feel we were looking for on this album. The lyrics followed when Christie channeled her recent diagnosis of ADHD and the mourning of that being something that came in later life. It's quite an intense song, but very cathartic for everyone. If you listen closely, you’ll notice the bridge features a choir of monks alongside the industrial-revolution-esque synth arpeggiators.
4. “Blister”
Some songs come shooting out with little resistance. You grab onto the fun of them and let them propel you as they happen. “Blister” was like this; it felt strange to be so rocky and bold when we’ve previously been more of a “dreamy” kind of band, but it was an extremely fun day in the studio during which we could be as extra and ridiculous as we wanted to be while being safe in the knowledge that this was what this song required! It was also a fun exercise in how to make a song work with only one chord progression throughout— something we’ve never tried before. It made us concentrate a lot more on making elements like instrumentation and melody provide the sense of difference that chord changes usually give.
5. “Phoebe’s Song”
In all of our catalog, there aren’t many bold love songs—certainly none as bold as this one JB wrote for his partner. We all agree this one has the fondest memories together in the studio. Who doesn’t love love?! It also features our first ever key change! We’ve wanted to do one for a while (with Macy Gray’s “I Try” serving as a constant inspiration over the years), but it never felt appropriate until now. This song is also special to us for the Nokia 3310 ringtone that hits after the first chorus. Snake, we will never forget you.
6. “Cowboy Without a Clue”
Who hasn’t tortured themselves with a long-distance relationship? We definitely have. JB got obsessed with this idea that in the future we’ll be living on other planets, and having your loved one living on Pluto while you’re stuck on Earth would make a New York/London split feel inconsequential! The instrumentation of this one feels more like quintessential Yumi Zouma compared to other songs on the album. When fans kept telling us that the early rock-song singles were a departure from our indie-pop roots, we would tell them, “Just wait until you hear ‘Cowboy Without a Clue’…”
7. “Chicago 2am”
Going on tour brings you to wonderful places, including Chicago. Sometimes those wonderful places bring revelations, and even new love interests. And sometimes—just sometimes—they are beautiful love interests that last a long time! That happened here, in Chicago, at 2 a.m.!
8. “Judgement Day”
This one is a true belter: Christie let loose in a way I don’t think she has before. It’s a strong proclamation of the uncertainty of new love, where you’re so excited but also reserved with the weight of past disappointment. Regardless, you want to scream at the top of your lungs but must keep…demure (very mindful). JB tried to make this song about a failing restaurant that was struggling with pending liquidation, which sadly was not one of his better ideas. The guitars were very fun to record, with a lot of distortion and feedback going on. The drop at 2:58 is one of our favorite moments on the record.
9. “Did You See Her?”
This is a witchy wee song…thematically about rumors that swirl in a small town or social group when complicated things happen. Which, in New Zealand, happens a lot. The song evokes the dark ages for some reason—specifically a Scottish countryside battered by the elements and stories of descent.
10. “Every False Embrace”
Sometimes you just are resigned to make your bed and lie in it…but there is comfort in that—comfort in the knowledge that you can’t do much but hope everyone’s happier and accept you might need a moment. The line about “going blind with hurt” came from us being obsessed with a Chicken Shack cover of “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Etta James around the time Christine McVie left us. This song is also notable for its harmonica solo at the end—who knew JB could rip the harmonica? Apparently he did, and we couldn’t believe it when he whipped it out the bag. It also features some wonderful pedal steel, recorded by our friend Tom Healy at Roundhead Studios in Auckland, on the final day of recording.
11. “95”
This is a very sad song. It started as JB and Charlie were finishing off some production in London while the Olympics were on in the background. It reminded JB of a family friend who was nearly an Olympic swimmer before an accident put her out of training for two to three years—by which time her moment had passed. There are lots of parallels between sports and music: they both favor youth and the time you have ahead of you. It can add a lot of pressure and disappointment at times. This song brings that together, and finally bridges the pain felt by both artsy kids and jocks.
12. “Waiting for the Cards to Fall”
This is another one that came together very quickly in our first sessions for the album in Mexico City. It’s a favorite of ours, as it captures beauty in a way we’ve never done before. It also allowed us to get slightly no-wave during the fluctuations between loud and delicate. The chorus came about by mistake—we were moving live takes around in a messy way, and the bass got slightly misaligned before Olivia suggested we move it further away from where it “should” be. It developed into one of the most iconic bass lines on the record, and the basis for the vocal melody. We especially love how Christie’s last line “sometimes life gets harder” rings out to close the record.
