Yank Crime

Yank Crime is the second and final album by the San Diego, California post-hardcore band Drive Like Jehu, released in 1994 by Interscope Records. It was the band's major-label debut and its artwork was created by singer/guitarist Rick Froberg. The band toured in support of the album but then quietly disbanded the following year as the members moved off to pursue other interests.

Yank Crime
Studio album by
Drive Like Jehu
Released1994
Recorded1994
StudioWestbeach Recorders, Big Fish Studios
Genre
Length53:20
1:09:58 (re-release)
LabelInterscope, Headhunter Records, Swami Records
ProducerDrive Like Jehu
Drive Like Jehu chronology
Drive Like Jehu
(1991)		 Yank Crime
(1994)

In later years, as guitarist John Reis found international recognition with his band Rocket from the Crypt, a gradually growing audience began to pinpoint Drive Like Jehu's music as a catalyst for the eclectic San Diego music scene and the emerging national emocore scene of the 1990s. In 2003 Reis re-released Yank Crime on his Swami Records label, including on it the songs from the band's "Hand Over Fist" / "Bullet Train to Vegas" single and the original version of "Sinews" that had appeared on the compilation Head Start to Purgatory.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
NME8/10[2]
OndaRock8/10[3]
Pitchfork9.0/10[4]
Rolling Stone[5]
Sputnikmusic4.5/5[6]

Ned Raggett of AllMusic gave Yank Crime 4½ stars out of 5, calling it "as worthy and awesome as its predecessor, losing not a jot in the change from independent to major label status."[1] He also remarked on the album's significance to the emo genre, saying "Perhaps even more than [their 1992 debut album], Yank Crime solidified Drive Like Jehu's reputation as kings of emo. While use of that term rapidly degenerated to apply to sappy miserableness by the decade's end, here the quartet capture its original sense, wired, frenetic, screaming passion, as first semi-created by the likes of Rites of Spring."[1] Brendan Reid of Pitchfork rated the 2003 reissue of the album 9.0 out of 10, remarking that "Opening an album with a song as bracingly great as 'Here Come the Rome Plows' would be a shot in the foot for almost any other band, with its snakepit verses and a chorus that goes from balled-up fists to open arms and back again before you can take a breath. 'Golden Brown' does the same in almost half the time. These more straightforward songs sting like snowballs packed with rock-hard chunks of melody, and in each case, Froberg's voice abrades the solid lines down to the bare minimum, and the band fills in the resulting space with pure venom."[4] He also commented on the album's significance to emo, saying "It's often easy to forget that DLJ were considered emo in their day; Froberg's howls of 'Ready, ready to let you in!' on 'Super Unison' seem like a sick parody of stylish vulnerability. Then the song mutates into a gorgeous, snare-drum rolling open sea, and everything you've ever liked (and still like) about this genre in its purest form comes flooding back."[4] Shortly after the album's release, The Stanford Daily's Andy Radin called it "a '90s classic" and singled out the song "Super Unison" as its best track ("its raucous first half lead[s] into a long, quiet build-up into a short, intense, orgiastic conclusion").[7]

Legacy

The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[8] Rolling Stone ranked it at #16 on their list of the "40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time".[9] The same magazine described the album as "their math-rock masterpiece".[10] Writing on the album's 20th anniversary, Ryan Bray of Consequence of Sound called it a "post-punk classic".[11] Magnet labelled the album a "Lost Classic" and called it "an explosive tangle of careening tempo changes, hoarse-throat vocals, barely contained guitar histrionics and mindful aggression. Its appearance on a major label’s roster was as mind-boggling then as it is nostalgically naive now."[12] Jeff Terich of Treble praised the album as "a symphony of tension and repetition" and "overwhelming. Even by the standards of punk and hardcore, few albums by the mid-’90s arrived with such an unrelenting presence, not to mention a disorienting one. Reis and Rick Froberg’s guitars scrape against each other with aggression and agility, their riffs sustained and even drawn-out to a degree that at one time might never have been considered punk at all."[13] In 2015, Gigwise named the album in their list "The 11 most vicious post-hardcore albums ever".[14]

Track listing

CD track listing

All tracks are written by Drive Like Jehu.

No.TitleLength
1."Here Comes the Rome Plows"5:44
2."Do You Compute"7:12
3."Golden Brown"3:14
4."Luau"9:27
5."Super Unison"7:24
6."New Intro"3:32
7."New Math"4:06
8."Human Interest"3:24
9."Sinews"9:12
Total length:53:20
2003 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
10."Hand Over Fist"4:24
11."Bullet Train to Vegas"2:40
12."Sinews" (original version)9:32
Total length:69:58
Notes
  • The titles of tracks 10 and 11 are incorrectly reversed on the album sleeve.

Vinyl track listing
Side A
  1. "Here Come The Rome Plows"
  2. "Do You Compute"
  3. "Luau"
Side B
  1. "Super Unison"
  2. "Golden Brown"
  3. "Sinews"
Side C
  1. "Human Interest"
  2. "New Intro"
Side D
  1. "New Math"
Notes
  • The album comes with one 12-inch disc and one 7-inch disc.
  • The back of the album cover implies the 7-inch disc is to follow the 12-inch disc.

Personnel
Drive Like Jehu
Guest musicians
Technical personnel
  • Donnell Cameron – engineer
  • Rick Froberg – artwork
  • Joe Kucera – assistant engineer
  • Joe Peccerillo – assistant engineer
  • Mark Trombino – engineer, mixing
  • Paul Waroff – assistant engineer

References
  1. Raggett, Ned. "Yank Crime – Drive Like Jehu". AllMusic. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  2. "Drive Like Jehu: Yank Crime". NME. June 11, 1994. p. 33.
  3. Francesco, Buffoli. "Drive Like Jehu". OndaRock (in Italian). Retrieved September 7, 2020.
  4. Reid, Brendan (February 13, 2003). "Drive Like Jehu: Yank Crime". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  5. Ali, Lorraine (June 2, 1994). "Drive Like Jehu: Yank Crime". Rolling Stone. p. 72.
  6. Iluvatar (February 12, 2007). "Drive Like Jehu – Yank Crime". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  7. Radin, Andy (May 5, 1994). "At the wheel of a '90s classic: Cornering Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  8. Dimery, Robert, ed. (2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
  9. "40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. March 1, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  10. Ritchie, Ryan (August 29, 2014). "Drive Like Jehu Talk Reunion: 'This Is Going to Slay'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  11. Bray, Ryan (August 15, 2014). "Dusting 'Em Off: Drive Like Jehu – Yank Crime". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  12. "Lost Classics: Drive Like Jehu "Yank Crime"". Magnet. March 31, 2009. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  13. Terich, Jeff (August 2, 2018). "Drive Like Jehu built up a symphony of tension and repetition on 'Yank Crime'". Treble. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  14. Butler, Will (December 2, 2015). "Welcome back Glassjaw: The 11 most vicious post-hardcore albums ever". Gigwise. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
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