| | Full Review | Ratings (160) |
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| 4.0 excellent | Bedex | March 4th 20 |
Great debut LP leveraging her early discog but also adding new things. The clearest example of that is this seemingly odd mix of synthpop on a fat house-ish beat that was never in her prior EPs. It is best executed on 2 and 7 where it is quite fun, and it is also on 5 after a lengthy intro but not done so well. 3 shows a nice flavour of psychedelic dream pop with some Culprate vibes to it. 9 feels a bit like vaporwave and is quite cool. There is also a lot of ambient on this, starting with the very sweet intro track and constituting most of the interludes. 8 also starts off and ends that way in lovely fashion, but the bulk of the track is less soft. At 10-11 the album takes an angelic turn with two superb and delicate ambient tracks, to then end on the most experimental track of hers yet, a glitchy ambient thingy that ends on a wash of noise - which I love and bumps this up a point. Very well constructed, quite original, bring on the next LP! 3.85
1 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.6 great | Erwann S. STAFF | November 14th 22 |
Much more subdued than this year's Glitch Princess, Serotonin II is much more about sweeping layers of chillwavey ambient with the occasional video game bleep bloop line. It's as introspective in terms of vocal delivery, but the soundscape shown in the first half tends to pale compared to the second one, which contains more fascinating compositions.
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| 4.0 excellent | John "John Hanson" Hanson | December 3rd 20 |
In understanding the conceptual bases from which artist Nat Ćmiel has drawn from for her blossoming career under the name yeule, knowing the origins of that name are integral to fully grasping her point of view on Serotonin II. The name comes from Final Fantasy XIII-2, a game and overall sub-series obsessed with destruction and apocalypse, with the character Paddra Nsu-Yeul being a literal embodiment of those ideas. A girl who is constantly reborn and recycled throughout time and dimensions, she mirrors Ćmiel’s own self reflection through Serotonin II.
The music is most easily recognizable as a sort of shoegaze/dream pop mix through the lens of classic video game music. The album ebbs and flows through dark, chaotic and noisy synthpop passages into mellower, more reflective chillwave as yeule infuses her songs with a heavily textured and glitchy modification of Nobuo Uematsu influenced bleeps and bloops. This is the kind of music that you can imagine tracking an emotionally charged indie game; in a different world, this could be the soundtrack to a wholly different kind of Sayonara Wild Hearts. While it may at times be reminiscent of colder, more detached kinds of electronic music, Serotonin II always brings you back in. It’s a warm, welcoming album, and every time yeule pushes the listener away she always makes strides to bring you back in to her world.
That world is a kind of digital playground that recalls a different time where personas and relationships were both more performative and less drowned out in corporate and ideological noise. “Pocky Boy” and “Pixel Affection” are mournful cries about identity in a world where everything is more connected than any human could have believed a century ago, but between the constant intrusion of brands and the inherent impersonal nature of online interactions, that connection begins to seem more and more like broken fragments of what could have been. The closing songs on the album, “Blue Butterfly” into “An Angel Held Me Like a Child” and finally “Veil of Darkness”, ratchet up the stakes as yeule really dives into all the different sonic and emotional depths she explored previously, leading into a final cathartic rebirth as she refrains tiredly and wistfully “so i’ll sleep, oh i’ll sleep, oh i’ll sleep, when the day comes for me to awake” in the closing moments of the record.
As a ruminative meditation on her experiences through life and a sort of continual rejection of staying content in one place and striving for constant new self realizations, Serotonin II thrives. It is not a groundbreaking piece of music; it is messy and oftentimes yeule seems to be stretching and mixing the boundaries of esoteric and relatability. That all ends up being a part of the charm though, as yeule’s force of will powers the album to becoming one of the most exciting debuts in years and establishing herself as an artist to pay attention and listen to, through the ups and down and hopefully future triumphs that Serotonin II points to.
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| 3.0 good | TabulaRasa6 | December 23rd 19 |
I tried listening to this again in the most appropriate of settings to hear this music (industrial Japan with the most gorgeous auburn sunset silhouetting Mt. Fuji in the background) and I still can't see this album as anything more than a 3.
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| 3.5 great | ellagos | December 5th 19 |
The record has a few stand-out moments of pure ethereal bliss, but the constant pulsing beats do grow repetitive.
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| 4.0 excellent | Doublez38 | November 26th 19 |
Yeule welcomes you to paradise, where you will be able to free yourself from all your negative waves, even more effective than Yoga or Meditation, during the space of a dream that lasts 41 minutes and 27 seconds, to deliver a dose of happiness. It's a nice surprise, the album is really solid and exciting. The fusion of two styles is both clever and well done, there is everything, a single, 100% ambient tracks and a beautiful voice. However, and I think it's important, there are still moments missing in Yeule where her voice lacks penetration and the singer/melody lacks effectiveness. For me, there are no very great songs here. On the other hand, musically speaking, it's really powerful
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| 4.0 excellent | John "John Hanson" Hanson | October 30th 19 |
after hearing about her on vice last year and realizing she had made the OST for 'Lost Memories Dot Net', I have been following Yeule's trajectory as she headed for her debut record. I was pleasantly surprised to see that her breezy yet dense mix of wistful dream pop (redundant descriptor? eh) and electro has really coalesced into something that would fit right into a reboot of Twin Peaks set in The Simulation. still a bit of a mess but maybe that's just another positive.
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| 3.5 great | janunn | March 29th 24 |
| 4.0 excellent | remi | October 17th 23 |
| 3.5 great | efp123 | October 15th 23 |
| 3.0 good | jhop | September 21st 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | DType | August 24th 23 |
| 2.5 average | Runeii | May 31st 23 |
| 1.0 awful | Slex | April 15th 23 |
| 3.0 good | ilich | February 14th 23 |
| 4.5 superb | FunJan | February 8th 23 |
| 4.0 excellent | gilly | December 20th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | Henry | February 18th 22 |
| 3.0 good | Corney | February 18th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | bmelt CONTRIBUTOR | January 11th 22 |
| 4.0 excellent | Gillie | December 29th 21 |
| 4.5 superb | woxdy | October 12th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | jesper STAFF | March 15th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Brabiz | March 1st 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | TMTrates | February 24th 21 |
| 1.5 very poor | gschwen | December 24th 20 |
| 3.0 good | n3zar | November 19th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | Tom Read CONTRIBUTOR | October 23rd 20 |
| 4.5 superb | Murat | July 26th 20 |
| 4.5 superb | ian b | April 13th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | kevbogz | March 30th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | A.R.O. STAFF | March 25th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | mrend55 | March 5th 20 |
| 4.5 superb | Faraudo | February 17th 20 |
| 3.5 great | peahat | January 3rd 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | tyler | December 30th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | DANcore | December 20th 19 |
| 3.5 great | Akifexx | December 17th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | alamo | November 25th 19 |
| 3.0 good | Trey STAFF | November 16th 19 |
| 3.5 great | Adamn | November 14th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Jan555 | November 12th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Luisito | November 8th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Uzumaki | November 8th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Rausku | November 7th 19 |
| 3.5 great | ZBJE | November 7th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | iiiii | November 7th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | Emo | November 7th 19 |
| 4.5 superb | Prancer | November 7th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | KevinMM | November 6th 19 |
| 3.0 good | Ryus | November 6th 19 |
| 3.5 great | Mathias STAFF | November 5th 19 |
| 3.5 great | budgie | November 5th 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Juca89 | November 2nd 19 |
| 4.0 excellent | Lucman | October 27th 19 |
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