YEARN – the seismic new vessel for the unstoppable force that is Lily Minke Tahar – just detonated the title track from their upcoming album, “Shapeshifter”. And holy hell, it’s a stone-cold killer.
Tahar, operating as a fierce one-woman wrecking crew (with sharp engineering backup from Sam Wesner), forged the core of “Shapeshifter” in a white-hot week of creation. The spark was Italo Calvino’s mind-bending “Cosmicomics”, directing its dimension-hopping spirit. The tools were pure alchemy: a guitar, a cheap acoustic amp, and a $30 mic. Tahar wrestled strangeness from the gear – pitching strings into submission, conjuring gnarly timbres and glorious digital artefacts.
Hearing “Shapeshifter” is like witnessing tectonic plates of sound collide. It’s a wild ride: hazy, distorted dreamscapes suddenly shattered by walls of crystalline sound. This chaotic beauty perfectly mirrors the album’s core – the violent, beautiful meeting of two dimensions: the old self and the emerging self. And that’s where the track truly ignites. “Shapeshifter” is Tahar’s electrified anthem to her own profound 2022 gender transition. You feel the journey in every note – the shedding of skin, the raw vulnerability fused with defiant, roaring strength.
Tahar takes everything from her past – the production skills developed under her previous moniker Minke (remember 2021’s Reject Modernity?), the multi-instrumental fury of Day Soul Exquisite – and channels it into something fiercely, undeniably new. The production (Tahar & Wesner) punches way above its weight, proving you don’t need a million-dollar studio to create sounds that go toe-to-toe with the best.
“Shapeshifter” is YEARN’s arrival: noisy, beautiful, challenging, and utterly essential. Lily Minke Tahar isn’t just making music; she’s tearing down walls and rebuilding the landscape in her own defiant image. Get ready for the shift on July 11th via Doe Records. This is the sound of an artist fully, gloriously unleashed. Feel the rupture.