Yours Truly - Self Care (2020)

Yours Truly are poised to have the greatest breakout of 2020 with their debut record, “Self Care” due out September 18th on UFND.

With the average age of 21, lead vocalist Mikaila Delgado, guitarists Teddie Winder-Haron and Lachlan Cronin, and drummer Bradley Cronan, thrust themselves into unraveling the biggest year of their career, from incessant touring, mounting imposter syndrome, and more to write the best debut album we could have imagined from the Sydney, Australia natives.

Titling the record, “Self Care,” the band are wearing their hearts on their sleeves using the record as a vital antidote to the whirlwind they lived in for so long.

Right off the bat, “Siamese Souls” grips you with a pedal to the metal intensity we haven’t seen in a long time and it’s exactly the kind of urgency that propels this record forward.

Early releases, “Composure” and “Together” spun well deserved noise around the new record as “Vivid Dream” paints the reality that Yours Truly were living in. Not being home for more than two weeks at a time takes a toll on you. “Vivid Dream” might be our favorite track on the record, complete with an acoustic drop that comes back in and hits you square in the chest with everything this record brings to the table.

Mikaila recalls how her long distance relationship broke down, how each member could barely hold down a job, and the fear of time and distance of touring would suck away her reality of home. Guitarist Teddie Winder-Haron adds that having just graduated high school, “While all of our friends started going to uni and getting ‘proper’ jobs, I could see I was going off in the complete opposite direction to everyone else.” That feeling of out of touch with his world back home eventually sparked the inspiration to write the record.

Yours Truly tapped producer Stevie Knight (Stand Atlantic and Between You & Me) and together they harnessed the collective power of the pop punk and turned it into an anthemic rock album that will cement the band’s rightful place in the scene.

Tracks like “Ghost” and “Funeral Home” display the clever, cathartic effort that lays any ideas that Yours Truly may not belong in the game, if not for anyone else, but the band themselves.

“Undersize” is a tender, heart on her sleeve track Mikaila wrote for a friend of hers trying to navigate the various obstacles in life, “I wrote this just to let them know that I’m here for them through all of that.”

“Half Of Me” and “HeartSleeve” are two super vulnerable tracks, letting light shine into the darkest parts of the band’s past year. The latter closes the record and stitches together a positive, uplifting blanket saying “you will be ok, take time out and be kind to yourself.”

The album cover art, designed by Sydney-based artist and photographer Georgia Maloney, further propels sentiment behind the title, “Self Care,” a crocheted human heart intertwining with the body while flowers grow from the veins. Mikaila recalls feeling only thinly stitched together at times and explains the style reflects feelings of holding the broken pieces together and intends to ignite a sense of comfort.

“We really learnt and lived a lot in one year, writing these songs allowed me to understand myself on a whole new level throughout it all,” she closes. “The experience was a true form of self-care that ended with me feeling stronger, smarter, enlightened and positive after a rollercoaster of emotions. For me, this album was my version of soaking in vanilla candles and that comforting taste of chocolate and red wine under blankets. We hope it brings solace to whoever listens to it and can relate too.”