YellowFever - YellowFever

In between meandering around their home country in a beaten up old hippy wagon, Texas’ YellowFever have released a handful of singles and EPs, which are brought together neatly in this 11-track compilation.

YellowFever offers minimalist art pop, with a guitar, drums and a couple of vocals allowing big open spaces that are occasionally filled with cheeky twangs of surf guitar or organ. Jennifer Moore’s voice is nicely detached in a Nico kind of way and is complimented by harmonies from Isabel Martin, as YellowFever sing simple and whimsical tales. With lyrics like, “The cutest boy I ever saw was drinking cider through a straw,” YellowFever’s songs are hypnotic, and, like indie nursery rhymes, will get stuck in your head between plays. With anti-folk leanings, comparisons to Moldy Peaches are perhaps inevitable (especially now that the trio has become a duo, after Martin permanently relocated to New York), and there is a similar cuteness about them, but they probably land closer to Young Marble Giants, or maybe what Vivian Girls would sound like if they didn’t drown their songs in guitar fuzz.

YellowFever is certainly rudimentary, but, while this sparseness is enjoyable in itself, the chronology of the tracks also shows pleasing progression in the band’s sound. The fact that the later songs are the album’s strongest - most notably the excellent Joe Brown - bodes well for YellowFever’s first proper album, which is due for release next year. For now though, this sweet, thirty-minute taster will sit well with those who like their indie to be lo-fi and DIY.