WHY? - ‘Into The Shadows Of My Embrace’
Yoni Wolf would probably rank as one of my favourite lyricists of all time, just to throw that out there. His solo project turned indie five piece WHY? (note the recent capitalisation) made their third and my absolutely necessary album of 2008 in ‘Alopecia’, bridging the gap between indie rock and hip-hop.
A year later and details emerge of ‘Eskimo Snow’, the Oakland based group’s fourth full length LP, recorded back in 2007 from the same series of demos which gave us ‘Alopecia’. The ‘Amnesiac’ to their ‘Kid A’, if you will. On first listen, it’s clear that they’ve made two distinct records. The hip-hop element has been all but eradicated throughout ‘Eskimo Snow’, a move which will surely plant a seed of doubt in some fans’ minds. Time will tell whether the new offering will live up to the likes of ‘Elephant Eyelash’ and ‘Alopecia’, though it’s still a brilliant piece of work for a different set of reasons. Here’s a track from it.
