The overhanging melodious ringing in the background is restless, perhaps even desperate…
While waiting in the room of the doctor's office, singer Alex Schaaf is uncomfortably alone. The even tempo continues while he attempts to distract himself with a plethora of magazines instead of the bruise on his thigh whose hues of green and blue deeply concern him. Despite the gentle harmonies that accompany his vocals, the scene he sets is lonesome. Light acoustic strumming fades back into the same ringing that outlined the initial setting of the waiting room. Now that his recollection of the appointment is over and the guitar has completed its dismal dialogue, he is right back where he started with that same lingering chime. Schaaf, yearning to feel alright, ends the first track (Body of Mine) of the album Soft with a sense of emptiness and introspective intrigue that, in this writer’s opinion continues to captivate until the last song.
Yellow Ostrich’s Soft consists heavily of odes to various memories such as these. Enveloped with vivid lyrics and nuanced sonic layers, we feel like we are right there at the scene of the moments he describes.
This same sense of connection can be felt towards the people referenced in his lyrics. In John, Schaaf speaks earnestly to the song’s titular subject:
John, you were right, I should have listened to you that night, darlin’
He describes how they’ve been friends since childhood, but it’s safe to infer that there is more intimacy between the two. He yearns--
Just give me some sort of substance, Something I can get lost in, oh
Once again, the dismally oscillating chimes make their appearance, lingering and reverberating over his mellow vocals. A soft piano sequence enters the song about one third of the way in, while guitar sequences throughout end in clearly pronounced higher pitches, as if forming musical question marks. And then, perhaps hoping for some sort of closure he sings--
Why's it so hard to say what lives in our hearts?
