Yellow Ostrich
What's a man? I'm just as soft as I can be
—"Timothy"
Soft is the gorgeous new LP from Yellow Ostrich. It takes its name from the lyric that stands as a thesis for the entire album, a beautiful and haunting rumination on the pitfalls and pressures of traditional masculinity and on band founder Alex Schaaf's drive toward vulnerability and tenderness as core tenets of his being.
The album's ten tracks represent the first new music in seven years to be released by Schaaf under the Yellow Ostrich moniker, since he paused the project to explore new musical identities on a handful of excellent self-released albums (from which much of the best music is included on the stellar compilation Like A Bird: An Alex Schaaf Anthology 2010-2021).
The gorgeous new Yellow Ostrich album Soft is available digitally everywhere today! It's the first new album that the quietly brilliant musician, producer and songwriter Alex Schaaf has released under the Yellow Ostrich name in seven years, and it's full of sublime lyrics, a perfect balance of experimental and classic sounds, great hooks, and elegant playing, featuring an outstanding group of assembled musicians borrowed from La Luz, Lissie, Bon Iver, and The War on Drugs, and engineered and mixed by Zach Hanson (Bon Iver, Gordi, Whitney, Waxahatchee, Hand Habits).
Check out charming videos for two of the singles off Soft, "Julia" and "Last Summer" — each captures aspects of the album's thematic concerns around the pitfalls and pressures of traditional masculinity, and human nature's complex simultaneous aversions and drives toward connection, vulnerability and tenderness. 23 Apr 2021
