Mythological Horses—a band that cites influences as disparate as Nirvana and The Cars—won’t necessarily win over fans of either band. But the Seattle-based alt-rock duo (vocalist/guitarist Shawn Holley and drummer Jest Commons) still deserves your attention. YYYMF is an acronym for “Yeah Yeah Yeah Motherfucker,” and it is Mythological Horses’ second full-length album. Ripe with loud guitars and rambunctious vocals, the record opens with the painfully messy “Wax Lung” before “Turn Around” reveals some of the band’s pop tendencies. The dreamy grunge of “Puget Sound Lullaby” sits awkwardly next to the Violent Femmes-style dis “Don’t Want You Back,” while “Fuck Your Drone” is a timeless, riff-heavy instrumental stoner anthem. Grunge pioneer Tad Doyle produced and engineered the 10 songs on YYYMF!. As Holley proclaims in the album’s press materials, Mythological Horses sounds like “a high school science project gone wrong, and still growing and breathing”—which is exactly what makes listening to this album so compulsive.
