Yea-Ming And The Rumours

Yea-Ming And The Rumours

I Can't Have It All

Dandy Boy

***I Can’t Have It All is the third studio album by Yea-Ming and The Rumours and marks a new line-up and creative era for the band. Frontwoman Yea-Ming Chen has masterfully curated her self-proclaimed “pop record.” Weaving melancholy narratives with catchy hooks in a sound that is more surfy, more punk and more indie than anything the Rumours have done before. Fuller sounding production heavily influenced by groups like Yo La Tengo, Camera Obscura and other early '90s underground college radio favorites, I Can’t Have It All marks the band’s continued evolution. Alongside the usual beautiful imagery, Yea-Ming’s songwriting remains as introspective as ever, but I Can’t Have It All marks a changing point both creatively and personally in the songstress’ life. Written during a difficult period in which she struggled to identify and painfully shed a “false-self" imposed by the outside world, the album follows the personal and relatable journey of accepting loss and making changes. “I realized one day that I have spent most of my life pretending to be someone that other people wanted me to be, and that was probably the source of my anxiety and depression.” Recalls the songwriter. “So I made changes that were really hard and I experienced a lot of grief in letting go of people and situations that held a lot of power over me emotionally—even if it wasn’t intentional—and I became someone that is closer to who I want to be. In that transition, I discovered that it is completely...

Yea-Ming And The Rumours

So, Bird...

Dandy Boy

***Yea-Ming and the Rumours swing, shimmer, and whisper through a confessional map of the landscape of heartbreak on their new album, So, Bird… Yea-Ming Chen has a distinctive, whispery alto that deliversthe kind of confident melancholy—a matter-of-factness about her own emotional ghosts—that shows itself in varying opacities, from psychedelic dream-logic to the nakedness of a psychotherapist’s notepad. Touching on everything from American indie pop, twee and jangle pop to country, folk, and even a bit of Brill Building pop, So, Bird... offers 11 more broken hearted songs to fall to pieces over. The perfect record for solo adventures and long drives with no specific destination. The Oakland based four piece features Yea-Ming Chen on vocals, guitar and keys, Anna Hillburg onbass and backing vocals, Eoin P. Galvin on guitarand lap steel and Sonia Hayden on drums. Chenand Hillburg have been playing together since their college indie pop group, Dream Date. So, Bird... is their second album following their self released digital album I Will Make You Mine and their self released 7" single Baby Blue.