That all-consuming magic of escapism that happens in a darkened movie theater? Ken Yates harnessed it with his 2022 album Cerulean, and with its aptly named follow-up Total Cinema, he’s bottled it. Cerulean—an engrossing and deeply emotional album that captured the grief and anxiety of a nearly post-pandemic world like almost no other music that emerged from that time—should have made Yates a household name. His delicate Elliott Smith-ian vocals delivered devastating meditations on depression and isolation, making its tiniest golden flecks of hope and serenity feel truly earned. With Total Cinema, an even bigger and more textural outing, that fate is surely cemented.
Total Cinema picks up not far where Cerulean left off, an immersive set laden with earworm choruses that sneak up like majestic swells of happy tears that make you look around and wonder, “Is everyone else hearing this, too?” Yates is processing the loss of his mother on the quiet, wistful beauty “Perennials.” With a restraint that is remarkably commanding, he sings in tidy couplets that paint a detailed portrait of a multidimensional person. “Never went to Paris even though you spoke the language,” he sings in the wish-you-were-here tribute.
