Yumi and the weather – ‘Howl’

Last time we saw Brighton’s alt-pop artist Yumi and the Weather, she was raising hair at Brighton Dome’s ‘Live is Alive’ concert at the start of last year. She’s been busy in the meantime.

Released 19th November 2021, ‘Howl’ is the second track on her hotly anticipated second album, produced in-house by her own MIOHMI RECORDS. Her previous release ‘New Way’ is a track that rides the line between the atmospheric electrics of shoe gaze and heavy rock enforced by a persistent guitar riff. The 2020 Some Days EP dips its toes into both optimistic pop-rock and futuristic synth with equal enthusiasm. It is safe to say that Yumi is not afraid to experiment.

‘Howl’, then continues Yumi’s precedent for experimentation. The song’s lyrics embody Yumi’s willingness to engage with the unexpected – ‘Hair is growing on my face. Hair is growing on my toes’. That’s right, ‘Howl’ is a playful manifesto about accepting body hair.

Emboldened by lupine references (‘looking out the window to howl at the moon’), Yumi crafts a central metaphor highlighting that, as she says; ‘sometimes we can feel like werewolves when [our hair] is not tended’.

The light-hearted tone of the tune bolsters a message of body-hair self-esteem. As she says, ‘It is also about finding confidence – as sometimes we might feel insecure about having hair’.

In lyrically emphasising that ‘not many people really notice’ an overgrown leg-hair or two, she instead stresses that ‘whatever makes you happy is the main thing!’.

As the title suggests, the vocals take no prisoners, melancholically roaring over crashing drums. Undoubtedly heavy yet unflinchingly catchy, ‘Howl’ continues to do what Yumi and the Weather has always done – shock us to attention auditory and lyrically.

Keep an eye out for Yumi’s forthcoming album, we know we’re on tender hooks.

Find her full performance at the Brighton Dome ‘Live is Alive’ concert below.

Words by Kate Bowie