Yeast Machine - "Bad Milk"
Photo Credit: Maxine Schneider
Yeast Machine is one of those bands that can do no wrong in my eyes. Since the moment I heard their EP Rise of the Yeast, which made an entrance in the heavy underground around the same time that I did in September 2023, this heartstring-tugging quintet from Tübingen has been a go-to listen for me.
Yeast Machine's sound began as very raw and heartfelt, classic grunge with stoner rock proclivities. By the time the band released their first full-length album Sleaze in 2024, their tones had bloomed into a uniquely theatrical combination of stoner, grunge, and alternative rock, filled with even more passion and bursts of intensity.
Since Sleaze, Yeast Machine has been quite the tireless engine themselves, playing live shows with what feels like incessant frequency. In the midst of this whirlwind, the band also inked a deal with German record label Noisolution and recorded yet another album, Bad Milk. This release shows the band holding firmly to their stoner/grunge roots and hitting us squarely in the feels as strongly as ever, yet it's also an album you can dance to like no one is watching.
Yeast Machine - Bad Milk
1.) Globalized Condolences
Globalized Condolences is a brief intro track that sets the stage with hushed and haunting notes before quickly launching into a goosebump-inducing, jarring sound and ultra-expressive, powerful vocals. This is a technique that, while not new for Yeast Machine, becomes even more prevalent and intense than usual throughout Bad Milk.
2.) Falling Rocks
The mood quickly switches gears with Falling Rocks, the first single Yeast Machine released from Bad Milk. It's a track that initially made me think that the band was moving in a more pop-oriented direction.
Falling Rocks is dynamic and incredibly catchy, featuring coarse, in-your-face verses and refrains and saccharine-sweet, soaring choruses. The song's grittier portions are emphasized with a punk rock flair, primarily thanks to a very fitting guest vocal from Polly of Cologne-based grungy punk rockers The Red Flags.
The music video for "Falling Rocks" (featuring the Red Flags)
3.) Bad Milk
The album's title track is a standout representation of the starker contrasts Yeast Machine employs throughout Bad Milk - namely in the form of guarded, tense verses and utterly explosive choruses. This song follows suit in a major way as cautious vocals dance with electrifying surges from the lead guitar and thunderous rumblings from the drums before erupting into a storm of intensity. As usual, this pattern becomes exponentially more frenetic each time it repeats, and I can very easily envision the crowd at a music festival jumping, singing, and dancing along as I listen.
4.) Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is just that - a hushed and somewhat haunting acoustic rendition of the chorus to Feeding Poison to the Spiders Was Never Really My Thing that has a way of making your hair stand on end in the best way. As short and subtle as this interlude is, there's an undeniable electric energy present, and in that way, Foreshadowing certainly does its job.
5.) Dust on the Radio
Not only does Dust on the Radio make phenomenal use of building, utilizing goosebump-inducing crescendos from both vocals and instrumentals at every twist and turn, but it's also a solid representation of gritty stoner/grunge, churning up that seismic rumbling that we all know and love.
6.) Feeding Poison to the Spiders Was Never Really My Thing
Feeding Poison to the Spiders Was Never Really My Thing is a memorable song with a title to match.
Once again, Yeast Machine maintains a balance of eruptive energy, electric tension, and serious introspection that blooms into bright, heartfelt choruses. This track has a very personal, anthem-like quality as it ultimately claims indifference over issues we can all relate to: self-sabotage and rejection. At the end of the day, you can take comfort in just being unapologetically you, because feeding poison to the spiders was never really your thing anyway.
The music video for "Feeding Poison to the Spiders Was Never Really My Thing"
7.) Karthago
In large part, Karthago signals the beginning of a noticeably more serious mood and softer delivery on Bad Milk.
Karthago commences with mournful acoustic notes before suddenly taking flight into brighter but undeniably bittersweet atmospheres on the wings of the sentiment "never again".
8.) Honey & Sweat
Yeast Machine brings the vibrant energy way back up on Honey & Sweat, delivering a delightfully turbulent melody that matches its sweetness with an equal amount of chaos. Turbulent bursts from the instrumentals, a sense of trepidation, some killer percussion, and suspiciously unruffled vocals come together to create a smooth and fluid finished product, giving new meaning to the saying "in all disorder, there is a secret order".
9.) Wobbly Wizard
Wobbly Wizard isn't a ballad or plaintive song by any means, but its groove is toned-down, silky smooth, and slightly gloomy. However, the song's effect on the listener is balm-like, washing over the soul like a cool breeze.
10.) The Golden Cage
Just when I thought that I couldn't be more thoroughly shot through the heart after hearing Karthago, enter The Golden Cage. While it's inarguably the saddest track on the album, Yeast Machine manages to throw some captivating and abrupt twists and turns into this somber melody. The intensity rises and falls against a dark and smoky background, always threatening to take off but not quite doing so until after the halfway mark. At this point, a 90s pop rock feel mixes with murky grunge and moody alternative rock in an emotional tug of war that has an empathetic effect on the listener. I don't think that we can be surprised that Bad Milk ends in a way that leaves us lying on the floor nursing a broken heart, just as we know we can always revisit songs like Falling Rocks, Feeding Poison to the Spiders..., and Honey & Sweat for an instant rejuvenation.
Final Thoughts
Whether they intended to or not, Yeast Machine has given us everything we could ever want or need on Bad Milk. Primarily by employing their sharpest contrasts to date, the band merges deeply poignant moods with jubilant energy in a way that only Yeast Machine is capable of. Poppy anthems like Feeding Poison to the Spiders Was Never Really My Thing, Falling Rocks, and Honey & Sweat will have you flying out of your seat, compelled to move along as you're mentally transported to the middle of the crowd at a live show. Nestled between these tracks, you'll find songs that are a bit darker, melancholic, or subdued, reminiscent of the band's earliest material in many ways. However, no matter which vibe a particular song embodies, it always packs that powerful emotional punch that we associate with Yeast Machine thanks to a raw, unfettered, authentic delivery. In this way, Bad Milk just feels right - a natural evolution of Yeast Machine's sound that draws from their grungy roots, utilizes the theatrical, larger-than-life presentation they developed on their debut full-length album Sleaze, and ultimately produces what feels like their very essence. And, in my eyes, this marrow consists of a contagious, unstoppable energy that arises when Yeast Machine's relatable libretto, driven home by cathartic, perfectly timed bursts of intensity, infiltrates your soul.
Photo Credit: Maxine Schneider
More About Yeast Machine
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