Yaeji has announced the imminent arrival of her debut album With A Hammer, sharing the first single from the project with the release of the simmering electro-track “For Granted.” She has also revealed a large run of North American tour dates that will bring the New York-via-Seol artist back to the stage for the first time since the release of her 2020 mixtape WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던 (a prologue to the new album). Which will include performances on both weekends of this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival!
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On her new single “For Granted,” Yaeji offers up subdued but buoyant beats that blip noisily alongside tranquil vocals. The song itself is a buzzing meditation on intentionality, one that questions over and over if she’s expressing enough gratitude for the life she has. “Am I saying thank you?” Yaeji asks against the song’s scattered electronica. “Am I enjoying it too? / Am I taking it for granted?”
As the song continues, it becomes clear that being obsessed and anxious about taking life for granted is just as detrimental. The solution? According to Yaeji, it’s to just let it all go. “So I stopped the thinking / Let it rest and I’ll flow,” she coos. And then the song goes from being a sparsely populated and atmospheric soundscape to this vibrant flood of riveting electronica. Which just swells and oscillates alongside Yaeji’s new and far more freeing mantra: “Let it flow / And I’ll feel.”
The music video for “For Granted,” directed by Yaeji, is a mind trip that visualizes the song’s introspection in a surreal manner. In it, the artist appears looking down on a miniature version of herself as it carefully and meticulously decorates a room, all the while a hammer with a sly smile on its face sits in the corner. It’s with this hammer that Yaeji uses to smash apart the room at the end of the video in a dazzling series of animations, with the destruction serving as this symbol of freeing yourself from the burden of trying to capture, analyze, and hold onto every aspect of your life.
With A Hammer the debut album from Yaeji is out on Apr. 7 on XL Recordings.
See Yaeji perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA on Apr. 15 and 22. See a complete list of tour dates below!
Visit Yaeji on their website, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Yaeji tour
April 6 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
April 7 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
April 8 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
April 13 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre
April 15 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
April 22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
April 25 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theater
April 27 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
April 28 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
April 29 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
May 2 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
May 3 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
May 5 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
May 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
May 10 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
May 12 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
May 13 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
May 16 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
May 17 – Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
May 19 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Words by Steven Ward
Watch the music video for the new single “For Granted” from Yaeji below!
