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Score: 4.5/10

Much to my overall dismay, I’ve been insanely busy for the past month or so. After an entire year of what seemed like nothing, the amount of workload I’ve had to put up with since November has knocked me sideways. And yes, I know this is a review and that these sorts of useless personal diatribes have nothing to do with the material I review, but please bear with me because I’m not finding a lot to say about Yesterday, this album by Cheekbone. I wouldn’t venture to say it’s boring, as there’s certainly listenable material here that I’m almost certain one would enjoy in the right mood. So far I’ve seen general praise being directed towards this album, if only by generally clueless reviewers. But really, I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t exactly worth anyone’s time, as there are hundreds of albums out there that work and function similarly and are better. This is going to drive Cheekbone and anyone else who likes him crazy, but when I listen to this I hear the ambient works of both Aphex Twin and Autechre in spades. I do realize it’s a cheap artist comparison, one that has been used far too much since the mid-to-late 90s, but I honestly can’t think of anyone else when I start to play the record and let the first track sink in. Is it good? I’d say it’s at least marginally good. It does the job.

Above I mentioned clueless reviewers. It may seem unfair or possibly mean, but I’m talking about the sorts of critics who have absolutely no perceptive insight into the nature of electronic music production. Yet I see these people day in, day out, praise electronic-styled albums that I would call total crap, or at least mediocre. I used to think this was my problem, but I slowly began to realize it’s everyone, and this is a sad realization. This all being said, the production work on Yesterday is mediocre at best. I really do mean ‘at best’ too, because other than the very pleasant opening track, the rest of the album contains pleasantness wrapped inside a cocoon of bad percussive ideas and overbearing, trite electronic production. I hate to be the cranky bastard that picks apart the releases a bit more clinically than someone who is off their fucking rocker with copious amounts of drugs while looking at scenery or ‘doing something,’ but I don’t care. When I sit at home without external distractions and listen to this record, these are the things I think about and I think these are the things people should be looking at.

This album, as I said, has traces of Autechre, specifically in the vein of their album Amber, even more specifically in mood. Same thing goes with Aphex Twin and his more overtly ambient works. While these sounds and mood’s can work fantastically well, Cheekbone ruins with his use of field recordings, percussion, and electronic manipulation. It’s hard for me to get lost in it because I can’t dispel my disbelief towards the unnecessary electronic busy-work that bogs the release down. I wouldn’t have been so adverse to it if I felt the drum and noise work were inspired and interestingly done, but they simply aren’t. Cheekbone has potential to me and some of this is enjoyable, but he needs to spend a few years obsessing over his music and his ideas in obscurity. I can’t expect this to happen, but it’s a move I encourage.

–Eric Common

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