I Can’t Have It All cements Yea-Ming and The Rumours as one of Oakland’s most cherished songwriters. With 60s pop-rock and 90s/early aughts college radio references, The Rumours’ dreamy music could make a lovesick mixtape from any decade—rediscovered from the past, yet effortlessly fresh.
Out now on Dandy Boy Records, I Can’t Have It All showcases Yea-Ming Chen’s skill with contrasting lyrical truths against carefree melodies. The album starts and ends with “Pretending,” melodically infectious but blunt: “You need to know something… I’m pretending it’s just fine and it’s killing me inside.” Then comes the title track, where there’s no missing the album’s themes: the dissonance of living through limits and disappointments alongside the necessity of keeping it together. “Old Frog” dips briefly into full-fledged melancholy, where a stripped-down arrangement allows Yea-Ming’s vocals to shine and deliver, with sweet resignation: “If that water keeps rushing down, well that’s just the way it goes.”
See Yea-Ming and The Rumours open up for Mates of State at Rickshaw Stop on June 26th and alongside fellow local Bay Area acts Orchestra Gold, ¿Qiensave?, Ritmos Tropicosmos, Salami Rose Joe Louis, and Hectorine at Bliss Festival in August.
