| Safe in the Hands of Love | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 5, 2018 | |||
| Studio | Paulie Sphere Sound (Mount Washington, Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 41:57 | |||
| Label | Warp | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Yves Tumor chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Safe in the Hands of Love | ||||
| ||||
Safe in the Hands of Love is the third studio album by American experimental electronic music artist Yves Tumor. It was released on September 5, 2018 by Warp Records. [7]
Tumor released "Noid" as the first single from the album on July 24, 2018, [8] and followed it with "Licking an Orchid" featuring James K on August 29, [9] and "Lifetime" on September 3. They shared the track "Economy of Freedom" the following day, [10] and surprise released the album digitally the next day with no prior announcement. It is their first album released on Warp Records. [11] Physical editions were released on October 12. [12] [13]
Tumor's former tracks had nestled themselves into the realms of ambient, noise and sound collage. Their 2017 track "Limerence" was lauded [14] and was included in the ambient music compilation mono no aware, alongside various other musicians. [15]
A "benchmark in experimental music", [2] the eclectic nature of Safe in the Hands has resulted in various descriptors for the genres it spans, with it noted for sounding "freer to move than most," [2] going "from sultry ambient to future soul, psychedelic pop, and everything in between." [16]
Instrumental opener "Faith in Nothing Except in Salvation" features "film-noir jazz trumpet" [17] supplied by Will Artope. It is the first of three tracks to include Artope performing trumpet. The result would be "an off-kilter take on anthemic jazz" [18] "that lends a sense of foreboding" [19] to Safe in the Hands. The second track "Economy of Freedom" features contributions to the song's writing and arrangements from dark ambient musician Croatian Amor. Starting "with gauzy, resonant synths before dipping into ambient house", [18] the song includes drum hits that "feel like something already dead hitting the floor" [2] and "a lone vocal melody for the coda." [18]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 8.3/10 [20] |
| Metacritic | 89/100 [21] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Guardian |   [4] |
| MusicOMH | [5] |
| Pitchfork | 9.1/10 [2] |
| PopMatters | 9/10 [22] |
| Resident Advisor | 4.1/5 [3] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes |   [23] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, Safe in the Hands of Love received an average score of 89, based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [21] Eoin Murray of The Quietus stated that "Yves Tumor has let assertiveness, assuredness and vulnerability run wild within him for Safe in the Hands of Love and the result is magisterial and deeply engaging." [6] Sypros Statis of PopMatters wrote, "What pushes Safe in the Hands of Love beyond the producer's previous works is the emotion that the record transmits. No matter if the synths are harsh, or the rhythm section arrives with the perfect groove, this is a work filled with an emotive purpose, and it is that core that makes it such a wonderful listen." [22]
Tiny Mix Tapes writer Sam Goldner said, "Bowie's only consistent trajectory has been one of tearing down his mythos even as his builds it, and his latest manages to knock down yet another wall as he steps more fully into the light than he's ever dared tread before. On Safe in the Hands of Love, Yves Tumor isn't concerned with being "experimental;" he's simply concerned with being." [23] Resident Advisor 's Matthew McDermott wrote, "Yves Tumor joins the ranks of Arca and SOPHIE at the millennial generation's pop vanguard, a group whose fluid approach to music and imagery is eradicating the gap between underground and mainstream." [3] The Wire said, "Sometimes the sensuousness of Serpent Music is missed, but Tumor's drive to take this radically new music to audiences as big as Blake's, Ocean's or even Radiohead's is exhilarating." [21] MusicOMH critic Ben Devlin called the album "a fascinating synthesis of rock, plunderphonics, bass music and noise from an artist that remains stubbornly undefinable." [5]
In his rave review for Pitchfork , Jayson Greene wrote, "You get the sense, maybe, that Tumor is carrying around other people's secrets, and that Safe in the Hands of Love is so cavernous-sounding, in part, to accommodate them. Holding all of this together is a stew of feelings—dread, sensuousness, ecstasy, terror—that melt into a mood so pungent and pervasive that people who grew up inside all kinds of different music will be beckoned towards it. Ambient electronic, dream-pop, experimental noise, '90s R&B, even late-'90s alt-rock—Tumor's music is fluid and generous enough to contain it all." [2]
Safe in the Hands of Love was ranked the 50th best release of the year in The Wire magazine's annual critics' poll. [24]
| Publication | List | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metacritic | Best Albums of 2018 | 5 | [21] |
| BrooklynVegan | BrooklynVegan’s Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 36 | [19] |
| Crack Magazine | The Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 4 | [25] |
| Noisey | The 100 Best Albums of 2018 | 57 | [17] |
| Pitchfork | The 50 Best Albums of 2018 | 10 | [26] |
| The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s | 125 | [27] | |
| PopMatters | The 70 Best Albums of 2018 | 12 | [28] |
| Resident Advisor | 2018's Best Albums | * | [29] |
| Spin | The 51 Best Albums of 2018 | 40 | [18] |
| Sputnikmusic | Staff's Top Albums of 2018 | 45 | [30] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | 2018: Favorite 50 Music Releases | 2 | [31] |
| Treble | The 10 Best Electronic Albums of 2018 | 1 | [1] |
| The Vinyl Factory | Our 50 favourite albums of 2018 | 14 | [32] |
| The Wire | 2018 Rewind: Releases of the Year 1-50 | 50 | [24] |
All tracks are written by Yves Tumor, except track 2, co-written by Croatian Amor, and track 7, lyrics written by Oxhy
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Faith in Nothing Except in Salvation" | 1:33 |
| 2. | "Economy of Freedom" (with Croatian Amor) | 4:55 |
| 3. | "Honesty" | 5:01 |
| 4. | "Noid" | 3:29 |
| 5. | "Licking an Orchid" (featuring James K) | 4:38 |
| 6. | "Lifetime" | 3:42 |
| 7. | "Hope in Suffering (Escaping Oblivion & Overcoming Powerlessness)" (featuring Oxhy and Puce Mary) | 4:56 |
| 8. | "Recognizing the Enemy" | 4:49 |
| 9. | "All the Love We Have Now" | 3:22 |
| 10. | "Let the Lioness in You Flow Freely" | 5:32 |
| Total length: | 41:57 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Applaud" | 3:12 |
| Total length: | 45:09 | |
Sample credits [34]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Safe in the Hands of Love. [34]
| Region | Date | Label | Format | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | September 5, 2018 | Warp | Digital download | |
| October 12, 2018 |
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It is often "peaceful" sounding and lacks composition, beat, and/or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.
Selected Ambient Works Volume II is the second studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Richard D. James under the alias of Aphex Twin. It was released on 7 March 1994 through Warp Records. Its title follows James's debut Selected Ambient Works 85–92. Unlike that record, most of the tracks are purely ambient music, without the earlier volume's ambient techno beats. James said the music was inspired through lucid dreaming, and likened it to "standing in a power station on acid."
Rate Your Music is an online encyclopedia of music releases and films. Users can catalog items from their personal collection, review them, and assign ratings in a five-star rating system. The site also features community-based charts that track highest-rated releases.
Pop is the fourth album by Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project, released on 28 March 2000 on Mille Plateaux. At the time of its release, reviews noted 'a striking left turn' in the sound, compared to other Gas releases; the album sounds considerably crisper, with a less muffled kickdrum and less of the 'underwater' quality present on other releases under the name.
James Blake Litherland is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer. He first gained recognition following the release of three extended plays—The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke—in 2010. He signed with A&M Records to release his self-titled debut album (2011) the following year, which was met with critical praise and peaked within the top ten of the UK Albums Chart.
Klavierwerke is the third solo EP by English musician James Blake, who plays all the instruments and produced the record. It was released on R&S Records on 27 September 2010. The word "Klavierwerke" is German for "piano works", as the album is mostly built on piano.
Darren J. Cunningham, known professionally as Actress, is a British electronic musician. His albums include Hazyville (2008), Splazsh (2010), R.I.P. (2012), Ghettoville (2014), AZD (2017), LAGEOS, 88 (2020), Karma & Desire (2020); released on Ninja Tune, Honest Jon's Records, and Werkdiscs, a label he co-founded in 2004, and LXXXVIII (2023); released on Ninja Tune, and Statik (2024); via Smalltown Supersound. Splazsh was named best album of the year by The Wire.
Big Thief is an American indie folk band formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2015. The band consists of Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia (drums). Between 2015 and 2024, the band also included longtime bass guitarist, Max Oleartchik.
Grid of Points is the eleventh studio album by the American musician Liz Harris under the stage name Grouper. It was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, by Kranky.
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides is the debut studio album by English recording artist and producer Sophie and the only one to be released during her lifetime. It was released on 15 June 2018, through Transgressive, Future Classic and Sophie's own label, MSMSMSM. The title may be a mondegreen of the phrase "I love every person's insides". The album was Sophie's second full-length release after the singles collection Product (2015).
Raw Silk Uncut Wood is a mini-album by Berlin-based American electronic musician Laurel Halo, released on July 13, 2018, through Latency Recordings. It consists of six ambient instrumental tracks.
Sean Lee Bowie, best known by the recording alias Yves Tumor, is an American musician and producer of experimental music, born in Miami, Florida, and currently based in Turin, Italy.
Heaven to a Tortured Mind is the fourth studio album by American experimental electronic artist Yves Tumor, released April 3, 2020.
Serpent Music is the second studio album by American experimental musician and record producer Yves Tumor. It was released on September 23, 2016 on PAN record label.
Frederikke Hoffmeier, better known by her stage name Puce Mary, is a Danish experimental musician, composer and sound artist.
Fatigue is the second record by Brooklyn-based experimental musician Taja Cheek, under the moniker of L'Rain. It is her first recording with record label Mexican Summer. Fatigue builds on Cheek's experimental compositional approach, drawing from an eclectic collection of genres and employing field recording elements. Instrumentally, it has help from twenty collaborators, who lend the record clavinet, saxophone, and more.
The Asymptotical World EP is an EP by experimental musician Yves Tumor, released by Warp on July 15, 2021. It follows on the heels of their acclaimed 2020 album Heaven to a Tortured Mind.
Mono No Aware is a compilation album of ambient songs by various artists, released by the Berlin-based record label PAN. Titled after the Japanese term of the same name, meaning "the pathos of things" or "an empathy towards things", Mono No Aware features previously unreleased tracks by artists under the PAN label, including Yves Tumor and Jeff Witscher.
"Noid" is a song by American experimental electronic music artist Yves Tumor. Written by Tumor, it was released on July 24, 2018, as the first single from Tumor's third studio album, ' 'Safe in the Hands of Love' ' on Warp Records (2018). The song is an anthemic comment on police brutality. It was produced by Yves Tumor, with Justin Raisen as co-producer and recording engineer.
Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; is the fifth studio album by American experimental electronic artist Yves Tumor. It was released on March 17, 2023, through Warp.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)