Season 2 Episode 2: Youbet's Way to Be (2024)

In this episode, Noey talks about the second Youbet album Way to Be, released in 2024. She also gets into the whole winter thing!

The Moods by Noey theme tune, "Intro to Moods" was graciously created for the podcast by Links Deity. 

Transcript

 Hello, my little nibmeisters. This is Moods with Noey, and this is a podcast journal for me to talk about what I find magic and mystifying and memeable about the music I listen to, and how it makes me feel. So this is episode two of season two. And I think we're off to a pretty fun start. The album that I am covering today is Way to Be by Youbet .

And I actually wrote notes to this album, I think last May when the album first came out, because I had been following the single Carsick. And I wrote like half of the album notes. I didn't even look at those. I didn't want those to change how I felt this time around. And listen, I know with internet time, a week is like a year, and it has been almost a year, but Youbet just toured in my city last month.

Let's, let's slow max this. And as an aside, I'm actually following like three album releases for, I would say the next couple months. I wish it was sooner. I wish it was sooner. So this album dropped on May 10th, 2024. The members of the group, it's a trio, based in New York, are Nick Llobet , spelled L L O B E T.

So the band is fronted by Nick Llobet . And the other members are Micah   Prussack and JoJo Quinn. Those are great names. Way To Be is the second album from Youbet. And I have really been listening to it since last May. I was really into it. The wintertime has been bringing up some feelings for me. And this has really matched how I've been feeling.

I guess I'll talk about it more when I get to moods. So, as far as personnel goes, we have Nick Llobet as the composer, producer, lyricist, and guitarist. Oh, and a vocalist on this album. And we have the aforementioned JoJo Quinn on drums and Micah Prusak on bass. Credits, artwork, Fuzzy Lou Elda, Engineer, Daniel Siles, Jillian Fader, Sarah Snyder.

Engineer, comma, mixed by Adam Brisbane. Mastered by Amar Lal. Written by engineer Nick Llobet. This album is pretty dense for just being from a trio, I have to say. And I really like Nick's songwriting. I love their voice. It's very unique. It's kind of husky and soulful, and really just full of emotion, as are the lyrics.

Although, I can't find the lyrics written down anywhere, you know how that is such a struggle for me. I can't just look at them all out on a page. Maybe if I owned, like, the vinyl, or the CD, I would get the vinyl. Check out their band camp, and buy all their stuff. And just reading some interviews, I really appreciate Nick's openness, and just willingness to be vulnerable about their process, and what they've been through as a songwriter, and an artist.

There is a great interview with Nick on RadioFreeBrooklyn. org. By Matt P. Lentils Falcone. Wow, another great name. Definitely check it out if you want to know a little bit more about the album. Also, I am getting over illnesses right now, so I'm both phlegmy and dry at the same time, and that's definitely gonna come across in my recording today.

The dryness is making me feel like the scarecrow right now, like I'm made out of straw. My hair is straw like right now, my mouth is dry, my Hands are dry. So let's get into this. All right. I've been dilly dallying far too long. First song on the album is Carsick, and this is the first song I heard by U Bet.

I immediately added it to my liked songs list. It's so good. So this is the song that made me aware of the group, and Nick, Llobet . It's fuzzy. I love the line, Knowing when to stop, It must be sweet. The song, to me, has this, like, endless yearning. I felt that. The acoustic guitar really pairs with what sounds like a keyboard, I think, in a really sweet and sad way.

There are instruments there. I'm going to try to identify them with my ears. And if I mess it up, mm, that's just what it is. So on this, and like, on a lot of the other tracks, I love the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar. We've got a lot of guitar layering here. It all just mixes together into this fuzzed up, raw, yearning track.

It's magic. Okay, next track on the album, Way to Be. They said the name of the movie! I love the line. I think it is. I did my time inside out. I don't feel a day old. I don't feel a day old. This track is angsty. We're getting more fuzz. We're getting more acoustic here. But we're adding kind of a lighter edge to the fuzz with this one.

I love that, that single string plucking. To me, it feels like, I don't know, like time passing. I know time is passing. Um, the line December bleeding me out, same. I don't miss my baby? Okay. Angsty rebelliousness. This is a rebellious track. This little impulse to give commands. I want my bridge. Let's build a bridge.

Demand it. Just demand it. Way to be. The title track is Magic. Okay, next track is Nurture. I absolutely love this track. The animatic that I'm seeing on Spotify looks kind of like a mama wolf to me, which I really like. Maybe it's just a wolf. I'm getting mama vibes from that. I don't know if those are nips or not.

The line that definitely stands out the most on this song is, I'm nurturing a thief. To me, I take that as Like to be enabling your own bad behavior, or maybe people who aren't good for you. The bridge on this one is really sad, really beautiful. I think on these songs the bridges are always where the song shines and adds that extra depth and dimension.

And this one is only a little over three minutes. But it really packs a punch in that time. The ending is gorgeous. There's like this fairy like sort of string. Maybe it's a guitar or a synth or something. It's just kind of otherworldly. A feeling I get from a lot of these songs is like an animal backed into a corner.

That's the feeling I get. This song is magic. I know. Is this boring? First three tracks are just magic. It's okay. We're gonna get to some more variety here. Next song, Seeds of Evil. Ugh. This is another one that I really love. The video is really cool. There are like these vignettes of people. They're like gathering to read kind of, I don't know, a manifesto that's called Seeds of Evil.

So they all meet up in a park and they dig a hole together and then they cut off all their buttons with little sewing scissors. And then they drop them in the hole, like, like they're seeds, and then they water them. So, obviously, the buttons are going to grow some beautiful button up shirts. I really, really like this track.

Nick's voice is the focus here. There are some very lovely harmonies, and there's an energy to this one that just can't be ignored. We get a Rooibos tea mention. I don't think this is the only mention of tea. I was like half asleep one night and I had that Rooibos tea line in my head and I thought, wow, that's the second tea mention and now I can't remember what it is.

The bass emerges so powerfully here. I wrote it's like waking a giant from a nap and the giant's like sleeping in the soil, uh, like a blanket. So this one is memeable. I think the song itself is. Mixed with a video gives this meme able status. Next track, Alive to You . This, this one is not my favorite song on the album.

I like how it fades in. I like the chorus. The line, take my word. I think it's, take my word, blood is for the drinking. You gotta offer up your blood to be, quote, alive to you, to this person, to be needed or to be wanted. I think maybe I just don't like the verses, but I like that twisty, fuzzed up guitar lead.

It's pretty cool. The song itself, though, doesn't totally work for me. So I'm giving this one a magic leaning on mystifying. So the next track is Dew, and this is the more sinister song on the album. We get these weird discordant, like, horns and strings at the opening, and then this aggressive rock is strumming.

And then the song falls to this whimsical hush, and there's a line like, To see what they see, everybody dreams. And then the chaos and angst starts up again. You wear your heart like an elegy. This song is so freaking cool. I just wanna say that rock lives. I'd like to, I'd like to just place that thought down on the table, gently pass it over to you.

And say, yeah, rock and roll is alive. Mm hmm. The song is wonderfully arranged. I think the whole album is wonderfully arranged. This one gets a magic and meme able. Next track is Deserve. This one does sound very similar in tone to the other songs. I can kind of see this one getting in my head all the time.

One of the lines is like, little ones are always having fun. It just, this one rolls around in my head. I was sick at one point with these songs in my head, and that one was rolling around in it a lot, but it didn't, I couldn't make any sense of it. So it does kind of haunt me. All I ever think about is children, like, playing in a park.

And then the first line is like, F 150 brings us here. Hmm. So this song could be like, the villain is giving up. They're, they've stopped pursuing their nemesis. Those are really all my thoughts about this one. This one gets a mystifying. The next song is Lost. So this one kind of, it kind of starts up like a spooky public access theme from the 70s.

And then the vocals start up kind of nursery rhyme like. And this one has definitely a different arrangement from the other ones. It's mostly like vocal tracks, the acoustic guitar. Tambourine comes in around a minute 26, and it's very slow and thoughtful, and the character's singing to someone, so it feels like they're narrating you, or they're analyzing them.

This one is a really gorgeous song, uh, I think this album has big song while a character disappears or wanders into another realm energy. So Lost is memeable. Because I have been watching a lot of, well, I should say I've been trying to catch up on Unsolved Mysteries because a few seasons passed and I didn't catch up on them.

And the newer ones are more frightening to me than the older ones. It fits so well, the whole Unsolved Mysteries vibe. So the next track is Peel. Now, Nick, Llobet, is a very talented, skilled guitarist, including flamenco. I've read them say that they're very interested and have a love of flamenco music. So I think this was a fun opportunity to show that off.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of this track. The Wolf Awoo's, something about it. They come up in another track, the Awoo's. Mm, I don't know. It's just chaotic in a way that, for me, has no direction, or maybe it's a direction I just don't want to follow. It is sinister, though, and I love the line, lie to me, and peel the ocean back.

Like, The water can recede from a lie, you know, like what's been done can't be undone, the water's out of the hose or something. I like, I really like that line, but it's not my fave. So Peel, I'm going to consider mystifying. Trauma, hell yeah. Trauma's the next song here. High energy song, the vocals are really the star here.

There's this sweet little, like, baroque opening. Really seems to be about A fairly toxic relationship, the person's partner won't work through their trauma in a healthy way, they won't go to therapy, they're using it as a manipulation tactic. Either way, as usual, whether I'm understanding the subject, I love the song.

And I did read that Nick said it's from the perspective of their partner. And this song is interesting because to me it's like the electric guitar at times is almost mocking the vocals in a way. This one is Magic and memeable. I know I should just pick one, but I don't feel like it. So the next song is Vacancy.

And the awoos are back here. I'm indifferent to this song. I don't think it's as strong as the rest of the album, but it technically has everything, like, stylistically. It fits in very well, but for some reason it just kind of annoys me. I'll listen to it from the start to finish. In fact, I will listen to this entire album in its entirety while I'm driving or while I'm working on something.

By no means are there any tracks that I'll have to skip. But this one, Vacancy, it just kind of falls flat, but I do like it better than Peel. So I'll say this one is mystifying. And the last song on the album is called Still. This is a trippy end to the album, I think. It's slow, it's a bit creepy, I think it fits perfectly with the cover art, which is also kind of spooky.

It's what the album cover makes you feel. So you're walking through a forest at night. Is it a dream? And You hear a gong being hit underwater, and you're following something, or is something following you? So this and Lost are the songs that I would use for a scene where someone disappears in another realm.

I'm really I'm gonna mention that again. It just makes sense to me, but still is magic. What a fun way to to end the album. All of the songs fit together so well. I know that Nick wrote these as part of a songwriting club over a period of weeks, so they're all drawing from a similar mood here. So let's give out some awards.

Song most likely to get stuck in your head? I think it's the title track, Way to Be. I was singing this while feeding the cats. It's so good, it's such a solid song. Again, Nick's voice is unique and needs to be heard. And Rock lives. Okay, next, song that plays as the main character disappears into a dark forest and is never seen again, Lost, and then still during the end credits.

Also, if I needed to pick a song that goes with Unsolved Mysteries, that isn't the original incredible theme song, I would use these. So ultimately, this album, it's not a funny album, like the Sparks one I covered for Season 2, Episode 1. It's not sweet, but it's angsty, and it's raw, and it's vulnerable, and moody.

You just, you love to see it. It's fun to look at an album, I think, as a whole, and try to dig up the themes. So the themes I noted were, like, growing up, anger, lost dreams, maybe toxic partnerships or relationships, wishing for things and then getting them for better or for worse. And identity, maybe a lack thereof.

And I think this is just, I just think this is such a neat album. I'm really glad I finally covered it. Definitely check this out if you are not aware of it. I think there's another album on its way maybe this year. The current single the group has out called Deny is so good. I think that's what prompted me to finally just get back to this and decide it was going to be a part of the season.

Absolutely love Deny as a single, so I can't wait to see what comes up next for Nick. How am I feeling? I'm taking it day by day. In between me recording the last episode, I got sick again, for the fourth time. It wasn't really that bad, it was like a cold. It might have been the flu, and I might have given it to my husband.

But, I'm doing alright. Like I said, I'm like a scarecrow right now, I'm very dry. I just have a serious need for creativity and movement. If I don't have, like, if those two pieces aren't in my life, I'm struggling. I just need to be creating something. But I really don't need to be pushing myself to be producing all the time.

Because as I said, we're trying to do like a slow living thing. And that is really tough for me. Because I look at an hour on my schedule and I'm thinking, What can I fill that with? And I, I probably am just gonna take a nap most of the time. So mood, taking it a day at a time. These days, everyone. Okay, well, if you got to this part of the episode, thank you so much.

I seriously appreciate you. I thank you for listening. If you liked it, send it to someone who you think will like it, too. If you didn't like it, send it to someone you don't like as punishment for something that maybe they did to you in the past. Check me out on Buzzsprout. I just took a bunch of time changing the name of everything.

I even changed the email address, which is gonna kinda get me into a tricky situation with the YouTube. And it's just boring account stuff, you know. But I'm working through it. I've got some Okay. I have a theme song. I didn't even talk about this. I have a new theme song that my husband put together under the name Link's Deity.

I hope you like it. I hope it gets you in the headspace to listen. And we have new album art, which I feel like I'm probably gonna change a lot over time because it's really fun for me. So I did, I mean, I'm doing all the visuals here. It's a one woman show. So I hope that was a fun surprise for the rebrand for Moods with Noey.

Thank you so much, and we'll talk soon. Bye.