Self-proclaimed fourth generation goth ‘yeule’ (Nat Ćmiel) has just dropped their third album, softscars. A pastiche of modern pop culture musical tendencies, yeule demonstrates their range and influence to breathtaking effect. From the soft, low-fi melodies of ghosts to the explosive punchy, punky x w x, yeule’s third-time album effort is a spectacular listen that truly encapsulates the music of this generation. 

yeule’s dreamy, gentle vocals can swiftly switch to fervent clamour, blending a shoegaze synth-pop genre all their own with nostalgic similarities both stylistically and musically to early Melanie Martinez, Grimes and Avril Lavigne. yeule’s instrumental talents are evident on this album, with their guitar, drums (very prevalent on the song softscars) and piano skills on full display, as well as hauntingly beautiful and thought-provoking lyrical content, made even more so soul-stirring thanks to their singing style. 

 The album delicately walks a tightrope; balancing chaos and enchantment, all with glaring humanity and brutal honesty. On software update, yeule states they are “25, traumatised, painting white on my eyes,” a disturbingly relatable quote that conjures images of David Bowie’s Life on Mars music video, another influence for yeule, who didn’t leave their room for a week after the singer’s death in 2016. The Bowie influence expands beyond the music, with yeule a poster child of today’s outcasts, dismantling gender normativity and standing proud in the face of violent discrimination.

There’s a futuristic distortion entangled across the album, perhaps a twinkle of hope for a better future, featuring glitchy, 8-bit video-game soundtrack style themes, which was how yeule taught themselves to play their instruments, playing the soundtracks for the games Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

On the album, yeule comments: “I took the metaphor of the scar to represent each song, and each scar remains soft,” Yeule said in a statement. “Whether you’re healing from emotional trauma or a physical wound, time never heals a scar completely. There’s no more pain, but you can still see the mark afterward. I have a deep feeling that the things my ancestors went through got passed down; there’s some trauma that just sticks. There was always decay and distortion in my life, there’s always been something wrong or ugly. So the scar reminds me that I’m being protected, and I should protect myself.”