Flowers are dead: Yeule’s “Glitch Princess.”

“Glitch Princess” by Yeule, which came out on Feb. 4th, is one of the best albums I’ve heard that has come out in 2022. It is an album that some will find rewarding to listen to, and some will find too experimental to enjoy. However, it is a testament to Yeule’s talent that they were able to make an album that could ultimately challenge listeners’ expectations of how risk-taking a great album can be when listening.

Yeule, based in Singapore, has been making boundary-pushing, avant-pop music for years now. That continues on this album. Heavily processed vocals and pop melodies are mixed with different-tempoed, distorted synths, drones, and guitars to create an exuberant sound. In their uncompromising honesty, the lyrics are also a highlight of the album. Many of the album’s songs deal with mental health struggles, and the lyrical depictions of them are uncompromisingly honest.

The songs that exemplify the uniqueness of this album will stick, especially with people who understand what Yeule is trying to do on it. Take “Eyes,” the fourth song on the album. The track starts with piano playing and programmed vocals that balance between single and double-tracked. Similar to other avant-pop artists in recent years like SOPHIE, Yeule also experiments with different vocal pitches in this song. The best part of this song begins halfway through, though, as distorted synths are introduced within the ambient-like feel of the song, emerging more fully as a cacophony near the song’s end as Yeule sings, “How can I burn out of my own real body?” This song is an example of Yeule’s experimentation with song structure, with them turning something with a relatively smooth feel into something that sounds apocalyptic. The results are thrilling.

 “Fragments” is another example of boundary-pushing on this album. Distorted guitars and synths appear together as pop melodies and are mixed with white noise, exemplifying the glitch pop of Yeule they make. “Bites On My Neck” also demonstrates this. With a pulsing beat and screams that come in and out throughout the song, it is one of the most energetic songs on the album.

Two of my favorite songs on the album, “I <3 U” and “Friendly Machine,” summarize this album best. Both tracks feature this album’s trademark distorted synths and lyrics that deal with suicidal ideation, depression, and anxiety. These songs are honest and will undoubtedly find resonance with many; “Empty hope, I tied the rope and couldn’t bring myself to choke. Open wounds on you, too. I know they hurt cause mines does too. When I am blue, I think of you in shades of pink, don’t want to think. You know I can be cruel, not just to me but you. You know I hurt myself.” The latter song opens with these lyrics; “Flush my vomit down the drain, think of my body getting hit by a train. Always want but never need, don’t have an identity I can feed.”

As a whole, this is a personal and raw album and, as written earlier, will challenge many listeners. However, albums like these are looked back upon as memorable listening experiences. I already view it as such.