The Northern Light

Issue date: 11/11/08 Section: Music Reviews

Media Credit: Gretchen Weiss [Click to enlarge]

Seeing is not believing. Freegan is believing, well, according to Yoome that is. They are a collaborative group including Chicago rapper Serengeti, producer Tony Trimm along with New Zealand singer Renee Louise Carafice, and on their debut album "The Boredom of Me" they preach about "The freedom of being freegan," on the track Freeganism.

The Freeganistic lifestyle involves salvaging discarded, unspoiled food items, not for sustenance but as a political statement. Now Yoome isn't out to make any political statements. They're using Freegansim as a metaphor. "The Boredom of Me" is a hip-hop album for the lonesome or the broken hearted. It's more like salvaging damaged people.

Yoome is a mélange of sonic deadpan beats, fractured raps and fallen angel vocals. Their songs are filled with regret and despair but also at times optimism and the desire to party, not to mention sex and drugs.

They would almost have a dance-jam on their hands with the track "Debt" where they sing "Don't feel nervous when I'm taking off my pants/I just want to dance" if it weren't for the spoken word verses of how exactly, and specifically, you are in debt. No one wants to hear about how they're in debt when they're dancing.

In "Blueberry Breath," Serengeti and Carafice muse back and forth over emotional scars and the minutiae that reminds you of the beautiful and the ugly. In "Smell of Regret," they sing about dead ex-lovers and the regret that wallows up in the aftermath.

Then on "The Notebook" with the chorus line "Ever since I got divorced…" they take turns singing over the other, listing off the cons of their ex-lovers. "I'm very aware of how loud he eats/I am a person who dislikes being told what to do."

It's not all bleak though. The album ends with a postcard of happiness with the song "A Beautiful Ending," where Serengeti raps about falling in love and the awkwardness and wonderfulness that comes along with it.

Band: Yoome
Album: The Boredom of Me
4 out of 5 stars

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