Album Review: Yves Tumor - Heaven To A Tortured Mind

Yves Tumor’s rampant, nay, rapacious carnal appetite is on overdrive here. 

Heaven To A Tortured Mind is a modern day car wreck of frisky Afro-centric pop, art school rebellion and noise collage – dissonance and vulnerable sweetness in one volatile package. It opens with the bombastic horns of Gospel For A New Century, which is every inch an assertive a song as Tumor has written. His vocals have become increasingly elastic, taking ever-increasing risks in the name of self-expression. “I can live in your dreams,” he declares on Kerosene! before a guitar eruption to make Prince proud overwhelms the listener and every other instrument playing at that time. He blatantly pleads for intimate attention on Super Stars, but judging by the following forlorn Folie Imposee fails to acquire it.

Not as surprising as previous album Safe In The Hands Of Love, but more instantly accessible, Heaven To A Tortured Mind should break Yves Tumor into some larger audiences, and perhaps even see him satisfy some of those unrestrained urges.