all yeule songs ranked (FINISHED)
it is time LP tracks only i am a coward |
| 44 |  | Yeule
Lost Memories Dot Net
Not including the Serotonin II interludes or any pre-Serotonin stuff or covers etc this is the 4 LPs only happy eating |
| 43 |  | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
1967
grotty alt rock fever dream chases its tail for 4 hookless minutes |
| 42 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Skullcrusher
2 minutes of post-Linkin Park postulation make = an hugely underwhelming closer for EvaGirlGun and a real missed shot as a single. could probably have ranked it higher, but the wasted potential grates on me crazy hard |
| 41 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
The Girl Who Sold Her Face
sure it has no hooks, but at least you can dance to this one. jfc this record has single-handedly made ranking Yeule albums so much less of a contentious prospect. |
| 40 |  | Yeule
Serotonin II
Pixel Affection
in hindsight, this bittersweet ode to online semi-reality and wavering e-relationships was a necessary foray into terrain yeule would flesh out with *far* more nuance and contour across their next two albums - which is to say it's both overbearing and a little bland lyrically, and awkwardly composed as an anthem. Serotonin II does so well crafting a dubiously viable 'healing' space for all manner of dissociated/haunting impulses that few other artists have rendered half so tangible that this song's on-the-nose approach almost tanks the whole thing midway |
| 39 |  | Yeule
softscars
Fish in the Pool
softscars' mopey plinkplonk intermezzo does exactly what is required of it -- offering pause for breath in the middle of a vibrant as all hell tracklist -- and not one bit more (i lie - that vocalise is cute af). rejoice |
| 38 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Tequila Coma
this opener wants for impact and suffers from nasty guitar abuse in place of a strong bridge section, but there's no denying that downtempo groove |
| 37 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
VV
completely passed me by on my first listens, but this chorus has its bones arranged right - solid grower. i like the acoustic palette here, feels like a very washed-out converse to softscars' energy flush. song does an adequate job at existing in its own space |
| 36 |  | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Perfect Blue
heady, saccharine and a little bit crap, this song somehow lands perfectly enough in sequence to get away with questionable lyrics and an ill-advised feature. have fast cars and coke ever sounded so convincingly bedroom? don't call me. |
| 35 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
What3vr
a little forgettable, but this thing's strolling breakbeat and lorge bassline earns the right to a nonchalant shrug |
| 34 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
My Name is Nat Çmiel
this song(?) is practically has own institution's worth of discourse, and no i will not elaborate on why it works as an integral part of Glitch Princess and how the album wouldn't be the same without it and why i will never listen to it by itself wait fu- |
| 33 | | Yeule
softscars
Dazies
inevitably the single most controversial take I'll drop here, but I'm not hating -- Dazies is one of the most ambitious tracks on softscars and it pulls off its sequences of lurid headrushes across perfectly executed tempo shifts (+ kicks hard here). I don't find it particularly gratifying on its own or in the light of yeule's other forays into dissociated bedrooms stupor, but all respect for taking a bold approach (although that said the guitars here are hella synthetic in not the cool way sorry next UH) |
| 32 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Flowers are Dead
this track is formless as hell in potentially in a good(??) / not good(!!) way but the fragile vocal delivery in its verses puts my pulse rate on hold and earns it a pass. deeply sickly song, probably a fair comparison with Dazies but with its death instinct jacked through the roof. yeule is a good death instinct artist. |
| 31 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Blue Butterfly
every time i hear this song i keep wondering if anything is going to happen and it never does and it feels great! par for the course among Sero II's limbo tracks, but that's no bad thing |
| 30 | | Yeule
softscars
4ui12
this one's hooks are spread a little thin for my liking, but we're into softscars' comfort zone by now and its groaning glitching warm turquoise convalescence blanketthing are welcome all the same |
| 29 | | Yeule
softscars
Aphex Twin Flame
no amount of goodwill or fanfic in the world can justify dropping a one-last-number style cathartic closer that anchors its rousing refrain in the words "i have one name" only for the counterline to be the fucking title lyric, but as even the dust begins to settle on softscars emotional odyssey, you'll be surprised how much mileage yeule ekes out of this one regardless |
| 28 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Eko
this song is all flow and drops its choicest hooks in the prechorus! not fair! yeule cooing out that e k o o -OHHHH oh for all its worth does not a great chorus make, but this still stands out as one of EvaGirl's more substantive numbers |
| 27 | | Yeule
softscars
Sulky Baby
When this dropped as the first single for softscars, I was a certified *hater* and uh what a journey it's been since. Yes, its lazydays acoustics and picnic-viable swirl of feedback are catnip for anyone into the more listless arm of dream pop (eww) but I've slowly realised what an expertly crafted pop song it is. So many of the lines stick like glue -- the way they tone their inflections up through each verse (Losing the arms race / Your family's disgrace) ugh so good -- and the core do-do-do vocalise is never far enough out on the periphery for it to lose its central hook. Great songwriting, that airy pacing had me fooled |
| 26 | | Yeule
softscars
Software Update
This one was a huge "holy shit" moment on my first listens: the way it filters love and loneliness through procedural technology is a classic yeule tearjerker, and they see it off with one of the album's better guitar stylings on that sadnoise knockout of a chorus. it's slipped a little for how its more predictable guitar stylings (that initial strumming pattern etc) plays compared to the album's other more ear-catchings aesthetics get that Bends shit outta here good song |
| 25 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Eyes
I always forget how much I like Eyes with its horrorhouse creep-out until I'm actually listening to it, at which point the interplay between digital and acoustic is *so* well navigated and yeule's broken-doll vocal delivery is straight shivers all the way |
| 24 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Veil of Darkness
Ah yes the ultimate carpet pull: it's a lullaby, it's a freak storm of noise and feedback and channel shifting, and oh okay yes it's a lullaby again but this time it sounds traumatised as all fuck. Serotonin II is mostly oblique with its exploration of dissociation and ailing mental health compared to the darker Glitch Princess, channeling those themes into a nurturing atmosphere rather than tackling them directly; the way Veil of Darkness frames the album's entire process as a prelude to a terrifying loss of control carries great weight as a statement, but - more than anything else here - it's a little ambiguous to me how well it functions as a standalone song. Essential closer anyhow |
| 23 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Mandy
...and on the topic of essential closers, Mandy leaves nothing to the imagination and uses an industrial death march to stage the dissociated panic attack Glitch Princess' entire tracklist has been painstakingly crawling towards. It's equal parts horror and release -- there's no room left for dread *after* the jump scare this thing provides -- and lemme tell you, I was not prepared for how hard it would go live to hear that entire central build played twice in a row |
| 22 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Eva
This is where we go up a level and I consider every track essential within and without its album tracklist -- that's 22 essentials, ready to cook -- yet Eva doesn't do anything so volatile as that! It's one of Yeule's tenderest tracks, stewing in space fluid and liquified bass as they take solace in a significant(?) other. "I'm not afraid of your darker side / when I'm with you" is a sentiment that various future Yeule songs would return to in various forms, but none of them sound half as innocent and unguarded as they do here. If this song offers more of a retreat than a major event and finds itself undercut by its rivals that provide *both*, then that's just the way of the world this list is cruel etc. |
| 21 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Too Dead Inside
Queasy moody banger self-doubt slowly giving up on clinging to love life and death instincts in a sluggish tussle yes this is a Yeule song alright |
| 20 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
An Angel Held Me Like a Child
This song is like finding yourself in a bout of crippling depression only for all the forces weighing down in you to melt into ice cream lol, that titular angel is made out of 100% sugar and I love this + her embrace. Does this song lay it on a bit thick? Maybe. Does it feel at least a minute longer than it really is? Probably. Is this necessary? HUH okay yes! |
| 19 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Poison Arrow
Yeah uh sorry budgie, but I *am* sorry! This is such a first (proper) song on a first album in the sweetest way - it's full of trepidation, full of nostalgic daze and sounds like it's trying to dreamily pelt it away from whichsoever distant menace into some cosmic sanctuary into which we are warmly ushered. This one's pulsing synth lead and quiet momentum bring back a ton of (mostly) great mems for me and I've half a mind to stick it higher, but alas alas up we go |
| 18 | | Yeule
softscars
x w x
Bumping off Mandy as Yeule's de facto hardest banger, softscars' screaming, yowling, *impeccably produced* opening statement sees Yeule dig themselves out of the grave they dug for themselves on Glitch Princess and takes aim at anyone who would typecast them back into it ("Let me guess, let me know, borderline? Overdose? / [...] / I'm not one of them, love you till the end"). It kicks up the kind of momentum that simply demands a whole album to follow it, and woe betide you if you rob it of that context (still a great individual track, but it's not going any higher) |
| 17 | | Yeule
softscars
Softscars
yeah fuck deftones, this right here is the only digital bath anyone needs. lovely soothing bop full of great production accents, would have loved an alternative reality where softscars focused more on stuff like this than on its guitar tracks (though the compromise we got was none too shabby (and yes the guitars on this song are cute)) |
| 16 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Electric
For all Glitch Princess' reputation as a dark night of the soul, it takes until Flowers Are Dead for a malaise to settle over it -- for just two tracks, it holds itself together as something candid and pure, and Electric - one of Yeule's most skeletal and straightforward tracks - articulates this better than anything in its achingly beautiful chorus. Hearing Yeule vocalising that central hook out of nothing as though their entire reality hinges around it (perhaps it does?) only to leave their final OOOH awkwardly syncopated is one of the most affecting of the hundreds of humanising choices that mark this horrible tech album out as so precious and distinctive. Awe-inspiring track live too (esp in smaller spaces with careful lighting design), I hope they keep this in their set for the EvaGirl tour |
| 15 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Pocky Boy
alright yes it is time and I am sorry, for I am *not* the Pocky Boy twas phero all along and uh the bloodbunny gang can rejoice forever ifg? this spookykid ghostbanger is enjoyably juvenile in some ways ("She says that there are voices in her head / she talks to them but she know they are dead" yes yes) and infectious as all fuck in others - it's a high water mark for Serotonin II as a whole when this one pops off midway and schmoozes its way through its haunted vocal glitches over a beat that holds the floor so well it scarcely needs to rise above a kick (and damn well knows it). gutted not to have heard it live tbh |
| 14 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Saiko
and so if anyone ever tries to talk you out of becoming a whizzkid bedroom producer, you just show them the superpower it takes to jazz the likes of "Baby, you look so good when you get hi-i-i-i-igh" up into Hook of the Year material and smile sweetly while they break down into incoherent mumbling about how no actually saiko (最高?) vampire boys are not real and will not save you from tripping out in the bath etcetc.. anyway cracked-out blurry-eyed romantic Yeule is invariably lovely and there's always a track on their albums that goes hard on this and achieves great things (Eva, Inferno, Don't Be So Hard) - and if this one also happens to be its album's prod highlight? we eat huh
side note, but the last EvaGirl song we saw was at place #28 (and the one before at #35) wow i wonder how that reflects on this record |
| 13 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
I < 3 U
This song's final minute wallows a little beyond its welcome but jfc those first three minutes are devastating. The horrifyingly childish rhyme of that full shopping list's worth of CNs in the second verse is the exact point where Glitch Princess hits rock bottom (even if the remaining tracks remain there); as with a lot of the album/Yeule generally, it's so on the nose lyrically but sticks the landing through their understated delivery and the unmistakable personal imprint in the production -- those glitches convey so much of the shattering sense of self and dissociated despair, I cannot even. ctrl+f 'dissocia' this fucking list man |
| 12 | | Yeule
softscars
Cyber Meat
oh man yes, softscars' obligatory life-affirming ultra-catchy anime pop rock banger is unbelievably wholesome, full of great hooks, full of Yeule grabbing the identity they've so painstakingly build for themselves across their art and (for the first time?) seemingly having the time of their life running away with it rather than wearing it like a chain round their neck -- this is their ultimate life-instinct song and it slaps accordingly hard |
| 11 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Dudu
DU DU DU DU
DU DU DU DU
DU DU DU DU
DU DU DU DU
HUH more like (uhhhh) t.A.T.u. because this 00s anthemic midtempo broken beat energy booster throwback thing right here is yeah nvm. absolutely template perfect pop song, has just enough of Yeule's DNA + trademark lyrics to feel familiar, but is also so accessible that you could send it off to just about anyone on a no-context ticket of Hot Shit gg well played |
| 10 | | Yeule
softscars
Ghosts
song parks that car
drops that phone
sleeps on the floor
dreams about me
top 10 adorable indie track of two separate decades? |
| 9 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Fragments
so bleak, so bracing, the less said the better. tonally, this thing's industrial-techno-noise-pop death march sends Glitch Princess into a downward spiral from it never recovers the less said the better chilling track ah |
| 8 | | Yeule
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
Evangelic Girl is a Gun
aaaand representing EvaGirl's top placement and its proud(?) status as a massive highlight album, the t/t is an almighty banger that spits out one tenacious hooks after another and leaves absolutely no pause for breath (excepting a few loose bars before it hits fucking detonation on that absurd last chorus). Spoilers for the rest of the list, but this marks a new highwater mark for maximalist Yeule and gives me a lot of hope for their future direction - surely we've had enough sadsack 90s alt-rock-pop tracks between EvaGirl and Softscars by now? More industrial bruisers please and thanks, no one else is cooking them quite like this. Only snag here is that these are top-shelf Yeule lyrics - did they have to wear that admittedly badass vocal distortion to heavily the whole way through? Bet. Am I sticking this a little above its station through recency bias. Bet (but I would bet *not*). Cannot wait to see how hard this goes in front of a crowd
unrelated, but this thing's flirtation with fuckoff massive industrial beats + pop hooks would make a solid mash-up with Fontaines D.C. Starburster (despite being by far the superior track). here for this vogue ifg |
| 7 | | Yeule
softscars
Bloodbunny
This one never gets enough love and has somehow ended up as a 2nd half deep cut sandwiched between Softscars' moodiest single and its most upbeat fan favourite. Huh? I guess it's relatively fleeting and hinges largely around a single mantra-style delivery style (as is equally true for #8), but please help me to understand this -- that means *you* in the comments! This is one of Softscars most heartwarming songs for me, love the zany lyrical flow (the lyrical callbacks to Perfect Blue are so affirming coming from this song's standpoint of relative strength + confidence) and the instrumental build is stellar (sounds almost like Yeule singing over one of Michita's more robust early tunes, see below). I'll fess that a certain part of my love for it comes from how superbly it follows on from Inferno, but even than idk - this is such a quintessentially Yeule track to me
Michita track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx1v1iTyrec |
| 6 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Don't Be So Hard on Your Own Beauty
Now *this* right here is why I never trust my first impression of Yeule singles -- *what is this emo-pop bs where is my lovely nostalgic glitch cocoon* was probably my first impression, and it took until hearing the full record for me to come around. Which happened - instantly! Adore how this one strips back the tech, strips back the gloom, orientates itself entirely around love and offers a moment of light in the middle of this bleakest of tracklists. It also turns out that it's a legitimately great pop song on anyone's terms and its status as a fan fav is heartily warranted. Aww!
Fwiw this and #5 are more or less tied, and this is arguably the one I get more out of on an average day, but things are (fml) anything but average at this point uh okay top 5: |
| 5 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Friendly Machine
Ugh of all Yeule's dissociative-episode songs, this one hits the hardest. Loved it/felt sickened by it on first listen (unlike the other GP singles) and it's been the ultimate one-track showcase of the album's overall 'appeal' for me ever since. Pop-wise, this track actively avoids hooky melodies in favour of the arresting power of oomph-lyric after oomph-lyric (the opening lines aside, "Violently crying to the song that you sent me" is the one that sticks hardest for me), but prod-wise, the intricate delays, glitches and sluggish industrial soundscape here shake off any need for moment-to-moment gratification and frame the song as one horrible extended paralytic moment. I don't need to say how well it works at this point - it's a chilling can't-look-away-moment and I still haven't heard anything like it (even given I < 3 U's commonalities). Yeesh. |
| 4 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Reverie
aight so as this top 4 is very much my top 4 and any one of these tracks could be my #1 on a good day, so hooray hooray we're all winners here. Reverie distinguishes itself as the exact moment I realised I loved Yeule -- or Serotonin II, at least! The album's backend blurred quite a bit for me back when I was first end-to-ending it in 2019, but before I'd even clocked onto Reverie's the form and structure, the glitched-out vocal at 1:40 was the first section that embedded itself in my head and spun round and round until I tracked it down to this track and pinned down everything else that was going on around it.
In hindsight, I guess it figures -- this track is *wonderful*, but it's also perhaps the most subtle, evasive thing in the Yeule canon, less inclined to repeat itself or land a concrete hook than it is to shift from state to state in keeping with the moonlit ex-mulling dreamstate of its lyrics. I've been all for Yeule's increasing embrace of pop, but more than anything else on Serotonin II, Reverie offers a deliriously imaginative vision for an alternative future for their sound -- and its ups and downs, realities and unrealities and haunting central ooo-oo-ooos flow so well that it's hard to suppress the occasional *what if...* |
| 3 | | Yeule
Serotonin II
Pretty Bones
everybody loves Pretty Bones! how couldn't you? that central refrain is so sweet, so heady and so constantly on the verge of falling out of sync with itself (thank you, lovely delicate glitch accents) and yet so craftily held in place. one good pop hook and a bunch of intricate layering will go a long way: the way Yeule chops up the (ugh) bones of the song and rearranges them in different patterns throughout the second half is pure vintage them. name a better breathless, coked-up bedroom-ready glitch pop track, i dare you. pure keeper! |
| 2 | | Yeule
softscars
Inferno
This track is three minutes long.
One third of it is an ambient intro (gorgeous).
One third of it is a repeat of the middle third that offers a graceful comedown.
But that middle third is probably my single favourite thing Yeule has ever done: its breathlessly economical pop magic and perfect production (those warm synths, whirl of vocal accents, well-placed glitches and minimal percussion ugh so trademark for them, so good) captures maybe their tenderest snapshot of pain, decay, loss and love, love, LOVE as this beautiful all-transcending force, equal parts redemptive and morbid, different from Glitch Princess' portrayals of an anchor one clings to out of desperation, closer to the titular image of a self-defining all-devouring flame that one chooses to keep burning even when they perfectly positioned to let it die and move on, fuck this song is so full of life and so beautifully in-tune with itself, confident and fragile and so, so present. So deeply moving as an antidote to dissociative-Yeule. So much palpable growth. Would I have absorbed all this from the lyrics alone? Perhaps not (though they are still top-shelf Yeule) but this song lives its truths. One of the most precious and humane things anyone has made this decade, and the only thing keeping it from the top spot is its lopsided structure |
| 1 | | Yeule
Glitch Princess
Bites on My Neck
i'm dead |
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