Oupa - Forget

Daniel Blumberg’s side project Oupa demonstrates a totally different sound to the scuzzy rock of Yuck, his main band; ‘Forget’ is a delicate and lonely record, with sadness pervading most of the tracks. A follow up to the ‘Weakend’ EP Blumberg shows off his emotionally charged vocals over a softer background. Opening track ‘Driving’ starts with a delicate acoustic guitar under pinning his reverb drenched voice as he moans “I drove too slow for you”. ‘Waiting For The Car’ and ‘Forget’ continue the melancholic, eerie feel, with Blumberg pleading “no, you can’t forget me now”.

The synth chords on ‘Physical’ compliment the continued torment which sounds as if he is desperately trying to make someone real and ‘Windows’ echoes the Yuck track ‘Suicide Policeman’ about trying to save someone. The album continually displays a longing to help and change things but ultimately it being a pointless effort.

Stand out track ‘New Home’ takes on a more classic song structure compared to the more languid previous songs. The drums push it forward as Blumberg moans “I’ve been waiting for so long now” before a distorted synth solo which again lends itself to Yuck’s sound, whereas ‘Those Are The Senses’ is a ten minute epic which gradually builds.  Opening with a slow guitar solo it is then caressed by vocals before ending with thirty seconds of distortion, a contrasting finish.

Occasionally the album drifts a bit but it is a small fault. It’ll be interesting to see if Yuck begin to sound more like Oupa considering its Blumberg’s more recent writing but only time will tell.  For now though ‘Forget’ is a stripped down proof of Blumberg’s song-writing talent.

7/10

By Jessy Parker