Yellow Fever - A Grin That Never Falters

(Self-released, 2011)

When the new Nightshift comes out, I, like a great number of Oxfordians, go straight for the Demo Dumper page to see which poor sap has been verbally crushed this month. I guess this gut reaction stems from that innate morbid curiosity that lingers within us all – waiting for an opportunity to see destruction when it is strewn before our eyes. But let’s be honest, if you’ve played in many local bands then there’s a good chance that you may have veered close to or have been thrown into the Demo Dumper (for the record, my first band got the Demo Dumper treatment – fortunately it was so long ago that the magazine isn’t available online… shame, that). It’s not the end of the world, and this month’s Demo of the Month is actually a band that had previously fared far worse in the same magazine so it does show that a band can learn from their criticisms and turn it around. But for a young band like Yellow Fever it must leave a mark.

We’d heard of Yellow Fever before reading their recent drubbing, perhaps through their association with other Oxford likely lads Dead Jerichos. Whatever it was that made us remember the band, it was hard to understand how, for example, their chums could get such laudatory reviews while Yellow Fever got so thoroughly condemned. Perhaps it’s because Dead Jerichos take their musical cues from slightly ‘cooler’ bands, bands whose music is comprised chiefly of digital delay, reverb and attitude – whereas Yellow Fever just want to dance.

At first listen, opening track ‘Premature’ is actually really quite dynamic, with some interesting chord changes, replete with youthful swagger. It even has a cowbell to add to the overall danceability of the song. This is clearly a band that grew up listening to The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys – bands who enjoy making wilfully retrospective music to dance to. All measured guitar leads and rhythmic stabs.

‘Fiend’ begins with a chiming guitar and we are worried that it will descend into a mushy emo love song before the aforementioned rhythm kicks in and gives it a more palatable context. We can’t tell if the middle-eight freak-out is good or bad – it’s certainly a jolt in the song that comes just as we’re beginning to get a bit bored so in that sense is a welcome addition. ‘Dead Intent’ has a nice driving bassline that recalls Interpol and thus Joy Division before a typically nu-indie chorus slightly detracts from the promising intro, but it’s nevertheless a well-structured song and pretty good.

The thing that we found most hard to overcome was the more Oxford-than-thou vocal stylings of singer Dele coupled with the overbaked, overly earnest lyrics. The first verse of ‘Premature’ is almost comically packed with alliteration, assonance, internal rhymes and various other literary tricks, as if it were written during the singer’s English lesson. Elsewhere in ‘Dead Intent’ he sings “I’ve seen the future/and you’re not the only one who can be vindictive.” For some reason, it really grates. Perhaps it’s because it is an archetypal indie lyric; somewhat clever, somewhat meaningless and wholly destined to be sung by a gaggle of sweaty teens who live inside an episode of Skins.

And then it hits me; this music was not made for me. I am not Yellow Fever’s audience. With that knowledge I can sit back, giggle at the silly bits and have a little boogie in my office chair. There’s definitely a generational divide that prevents me from fully embracing Yellow Fever (as well as one or two matters of taste), but if we judge their music for what it is on its own terms, it’s well done and really rather enjoyable.

[Originally published on Musicinoxford.co.uk, 02/06/2011]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2011/06/02/yellow-fever-a-grin-that-never-falters-ep-self-released/