Two years since their second album ‘Odd Blood’, Yeasayer have returned with ‘Henrietta’, the first single off their forthcoming but as yet untitled album. Based around the story of Henrietta Lacks, a woman from Baltimore who had a rare form of cancer which meant her tumours and cells continued to grow after she died, the band have described the new album as ‘a demented R n B record’. ‘Henrietta’ features the same psychedelic synthesizer patterns which have come to denote a Yeasayer song, before half way through it warps into a totally different track. Washed out and slowed down, as Chris Keating sings ‘oh Henrietta/we can live on forever’. Yeasayer have definitely been missed, but ‘Henrietta’ proves that the wait has been worthwhile.
Jessy Parker
