Album Review: Let It Burn

You can tell by the name, can’t you, you can just tell. I mean, Dwight Yoakam couldn’t be anything but a country singer, could he? And Parker Milsap? Pure cowboy. Closer to home we have Jesse Wilde and maybe Matt Joe Gow. Country with attitude. Cowboy names. Not pure country, a little outlaw in there, a little edge, a little hard core, a little alternative.

Well now, let’s add Miller Yule to the onomatopoeic charts. I first saw Miller down in Gore back in 2019 when he brought Tangled Up to the MLT Songwriter’s awards, and he just emanated: star. If not now, in the making. And in the making these past few years has been a monumental struggle for all artists as appearances, gigs, just about everything to do with making a record is disrupted and disjointed. Monumental with an emphasis on the mental. Life going on and getting in the way. Songs long locked down but never heard. Money. Anxiety. Breakups. Thankfully the converse. Persistence, patience, hope, determination, belief and bounce. An impromptu trip to Las Vegas to film a video, gangster cowboy style, the whole thing exploding like Dynamite, could be the album title, but no, there’s a bigger metaphor for getting this damned first album out and catching breath and moving on.

Miller Yule’s debut album is out today, Friday September 30th, and it’s called Let It Burn. Let it be, let it out, cut it loose, let it live, let it sizzle, let it burn. Emanate.

It does.

It rocks and rolls and rattles and shakes and then provides moments of peace, harmony and respite. Lots of hooks and crannys.

There are three singles out already and they frontload the album, so you are in no doubt this is a loud play and not for dinner (unless you like your mealtime to rock and not to talk). Dynamite, Evergreen, Lock Me Up set the scene and the tone.

Miller Yule is a multi-instrumentalist and has a silky soft voice which rises and falls like a wrecking ball and lights up like dynamite. My notes from Gore placed him alongside Aaron Lee Tasjan as an immediate reference, but Miller himself suggests Springsteen, Petty, Beatles and many other troubadours who mix it up and lock it up. Indie folk country grit. Victim of your heart’s conviction. Somebody lock him up, he’s dangerous.

Especially with the band of renegades supporting him. Greg Haver insisted he produce and play drums. Tom Healy plays guitar both power and subtle, Stephen Small plays keys and Mike Hall’s on bass. Just another Auckland supergroup, but a big sound is guaranteed. It don’t mean Nothing but it means a lot. A fine sampling of backing vocalists; Miller Yule has lots of friends, some in faraway places who mix and master. In London and Nashville.

Hold On, some respite, catch our breath, don’t give up, take it Easy. The ballads are soothingly familiar, Sunday morning easy, but don’t count on an afternoon nap, Greg Haver just loves to drum up a storm, Wishing Well restores the pace and tenor, and Miller Yule is not Going Away.

Penultimately, a power ballad tearjerker called Wake Up before we return to where we started, Miller Yule stripped bare onstage at the St James Theatre in Gore back in 2019, a song written but not yet recorded, all Tangled Up in a future yet to be seen.

Until today.

Let It Burn, let it be, let it out, let it emanate, cut it loose, it’s ours to enjoy.

And so you will.