After releasing a few ear-catching singles -- chief among them 2013's bright and breezy "Grapefruit" --
Yuno took five years to deliver his debut EP.
Moodie proves that time was well spent, reflecting how his music changed and keeps changing. The closest he comes to a signature sound is on "Amber" and the anthemic former single "Why For," both of which filter his teenage love of '90s and 2000s alt-rockers like
AFI and
Rancid through a chill 2010s lens. On the former song, the hints of reggae evoke
311 as much as they do
Yuno's Jamaican roots; the latter brings skate-rock riffs into the 21st century with trap-tinged beats.
Yuno is too restless and in love with all of music's possibilities to stick with just one approach, however, and
Moodie reveals that he's a master of recontextualizing. The bouncy keyboards on "No Going Back" could be borrowed from '50s pop or '80s new wave, and though its intricate guitar solo could've been pilfered from hair metal, it fits in effortlessly.
Yuno sounds just as natural when he delves into 2010s pop sounds: "Galapagos" flirts with hip-hop, while "Fall in Love"'s mellow melancholy resides somewhere between chillwave and R&B. Each of the EP's tracks might sound like they belong on different playlists, but
Yuno ties them together with summery melodies that even bring a bit of sunshine to "So Slow"'s suburban boredom.
Moodie's collages are even more appealing than they are surprising, and
Yuno makes a strong case that genres are more a thing of the past than the sounds he reinvents. ~ Heather Phares