In this debut project, yungatita shows more color in their skill set as a writer and a performer. While the overall sound and writing might come off a tad plain, ‘Shoelace & A Knot’ embraces power pop jabs that fit well with the bedroom pop palette yungatita started with.
It’s hard not to see yungatita’s debut EP get thrown into the wayside with its bedroom pop palette that screams of tamely liquidated indie atmospherics that is paired with overall mild qualities across the board. However, that mildness did get oversight through the TikTok algorithmics, where ‘7 Weeks & 3 Days’ is now used as a backdrop on certain TikTok videos leaning on eerie prompts and creepypasta horrifics, essentially overshadowing the EP itself. Yet, despite all of that, Yungatita decides to ruffle that part of their sonic scope out of their way, aiming for something a bit more ragged and snappier, a combo that benefits them even more.
Shifting away from the mild bedroom pop they started with, yungatita loosens up their style on ‘Shoelace & A Knot’, puncturing every track with more groove and spark on the guitars and the drums. It may retain the usual 2010’s bedroom pop and indie rock tapestries due to the instrumental textures - especially with the summery synths and glinting guitar riffs - yet it works better now due to the melodies becoming more punchy and Valentina Zapata’s vocal prowess showing a lot of more fitting expressiveness within this style of power pop that bursts on cuts like ‘Armchair’, ‘Descenda’, and ‘Pick At Your Face’, putting a lot of spunky flair on their soaring shouts and calming vocalizations. The saturated production is a tried and true style, yet it is a formula that works in yungatita’s favor, especially when cuts like ‘Crack Of Your Jaw’ with its noisy guitar feedback, ‘Whiplash’ with the streams of percussion blasts and noisy guitar riffs, and ‘Reckless’ with its sharp guitar swoops pick up a lot of bulk that allows their textures to shred and their melodies to blaze through.
And for what it’s worth, the lyrics do pick up a bit of an expanded viewpoint of yungatita’s songwriting capabilities, painting a reckless swerve that picks up a certain grit towards the melancholic tinge of the relationship. Yet that attitude itself does lead yungatita to spiral away and mess up in the fractured relationship they are dealing with, a mask that they can put up to strengthen themself as a means to break out from that situation, but realizes that it only stumbles them as a result and cannot help but need their partner as they eventually find a sense of regret with the attitude that is used more to mask their vulnerabilities. Despite the gritty details getting a bit timidly shown due to the rather sweet tooth presentation, it still creates some nice texture to the relationship on display where that agitated attitude is a double-edged sword that can provide strength to them but also weakens them when it all breaks apart.
yungatita’s debut project presents the honing of their skillsets as a writer and performer that may retain what they started with four years ago, but the inclusion of saturated power pop and indie rock grooves allows that bedroom pop palette to bring a bit more firm flair. That album title alone may as well be the apt descriptor for the project. Implementing a looser energetic flair and tighter composition eventually manifests into a familiar, yet improved showcase for yungatita’s potential moving forward.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Reckless’, ‘Armchair’, ‘Descenda’, ‘Pick At Your Face’, ‘Whiplash’, ‘Crack Of Your Jaw’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Other’