YZMN lays tiny soul bare on raw, honest ‘Therapy’ EP

Last Updated on September 14, 2023, 10:38 AM | Published: September 14, 2023

The world of electronic pop music isn’t usually where you expect to find a brutally honest, deeply personal exploration of issues like depression and self-sabotage.

You’d think that’s more introspective singer-songwriter territory.

But the aptly titled new “Therapy” EP from OKC-based popstress YZMN makes a seriously strong case for the amorphous, funky, electronically sensual sound of modern pop as an astute backdrop for the shifting, often wildly dense emotions at play in the mind of one coming to grips with themself.

Because sometimes when you’re at the end of your rope, you don’t want to curl up in bed and cry along to an acoustic guitar. Sometimes you want to lose yourself in a crowd or in a club instead. 

Sometimes you just want to dance.

“That is why I love music,” YZMN (real name Yazmin Catalano) told me. “There is a unity in recognizing that we are never alone and the battles we face inside are often shared. I admire artists like Sia, Labrinth, NF, Amy Winehouse, and Adele for their fearlessness and willingness to do the hard work in processing that complex feeling through music.”

Each of those artists comes through on “Therapy,” from Adele’s gospel-soul vocal theatrics to the epic drama of Sia (including shades of the hits she wrote for Rihanna,) there are plenty of nods to the non-superstar, alt-pop world as well.

Surely the most easily identified is the complex, vocoder-washed vocal layering that kicks off opener “Blue Eyed Boys” recalling Imogen Heap, but touches throughout the release embrace the kind of space and breathy, indie-pop intimacy you’d expect from The XX.

It’s a testament to the production work of VEUX Studios’ James Conner that the tracks each so effortlessly morph and shift and remain fluid, but also they mostly avoid falling into obvious changes or tired pop tropes. Most of the songs don’t build the way you expect, or they do to a point, and then pull the rug out from under you and drop you back into the pulsing minimalism where it started.

Always at the center, though, is Catalano’s voice, her vocal melodies – part lovelorn R&B, part gospel belt – remain the focal point at all times, allowing the backing tracks to be always building, dismantling, and reconstructing themselves.

But again, in the world of sometimes sterile, pedestrian pop music, it’s rare to hear someone with this kind of confidence and power in their voice getting so real and opening themselves up so completely.

“It wasn’t until we really started digging in and producing these songs that I realized there were so many things that I hadn’t gotten over, so many things that I suppressed,” Catalano said. “Depression, infidelity, unhealthy coping choices, self-harm. There have been many instances throughout the process of developing this EP that I’ve questioned why I would ever deliberately decide to pull the skeletons out of the closet and write music about things that most people would rather leave in the past.”

Nowhere on the release is this more clear than on penultimate ballad “Tiny Soul,” a piano-driven dissection of the psychology of self-harm.

It’s a harrowingly honest, personal track, entirely devoid of the arms-length messaging of some other pop attempts at addressing such a serious issue.

This isn’t a public service announcement. It’s a real look into the mentality of a real person.

Each song is, in fact, in its own way.

We need more people to stand up and be unfiltered about the things they’ve had to endure.

Yazmin Catalano

“Each song explores depression in a slightly different way because depression is very complex and you oftentimes experience many different stages,” she said. “What I hope people take from this music is that we need more people to stand up and be unfiltered about the things they’ve had to endure. Even if it’s ugly and embarrassing. Even if you’d rather not go there. The truth is there and there is massive healing on the other side of this process.”

“Therapy,” then, is just that. It’s a collection of safe places to speak openly and bluntly without judgment and with total honesty. Even if it’s hard. Especially if it’s hard.

Now if only more pop music was like this.

The six-track “Therapy” by YZMN is available now on all streaming platforms.

Follow YZMN online at facebook.com/YZMNOFFICIAL and on Instagram at @yzmnofficial.

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