Kelly Kirwan
Press play on ohyeahsumi's latest, and you’ll hear a croon that’s plush and whispering, the sort of lightweight pitch that melts its consonants together in an alluring lisp. If you were to ask the two sisters (more specifically, twins) to describe their sound, they’d opt for the enigmatic and noncommittal tag, “velvet bedroom pop (kinda).” Lena and Rena Vernon have voices that could spool burlap into silk, their respective resonances having the smooth roll of a purr.
The duo spent this past winter writing and recording their new EP, Your Friends Are Looking For You, which serves up six tracks of slight discordance and an enrapturing narrative of love in its warped states. Lena and Rena’s voices may be velvety smooth, but their melodies go against the grain, weaving in a rougher touch. It’s our cue to dig beneath the surface of these girls' sweet delivery, because this album is certainly not saccharine. It mingles in darker strokes of reality, and for that, it’s all the more enticing.
The EP’s opener, “Cosmos Bowling,” begins with deep, reverberating guitar strums and harpsichord-like gleams. The Vernon sisters’ high sopranos then flutter and fall into layers over the dreamy landscape, as the ominous lyrics set a different tone, “I hear the good girls die / I hear the bad boys hide.” The song is served by this single verse, a dark rumination, that’s engulfed by versatile strings and tangy notes. The mood lightens somewhat, in terms of melody, as the song meanders towards its end, but it’s still bound to a final thought: “I’d rather stay inside / Pretend to sleep at night.”
The track “Daisy,” in it’s first few seconds, mirrors the full-bodied plucks of “Cosmos Bowling.” But it stays more subdued, their voices hushed. In these murmurs we seem to learn secret thoughts or urges, “Scared of being pretty / Room is dirty, mind is filthy / My dress curves clearly at the waist.” Before we learn how they’re viewed in the eyes of their love interest’s mother, and perhaps how they can assert themselves with mischief (or self-sabotage) with the confession, “I make my drinks bitter and mean / So you’ll puke on her daises, baby / I like my boys bitter and mean.” We see this interplay of two stereotypical vices, lust and spirits, and how, sometimes, we crave the things that leave us with the ache of a hangover, and a little withdrawal.
Your Friends Are Looking for You is a soft and sharp. It toys with ideas of relationships and the acerbic aftertaste they can bring, even playing with themes of secrecy. The album's title aptly fits its mood, and the unspoken questions it raises: Where have you been? Who were you with? Ohyeahsumi beguile and unsettle, and they do so beautifully.