Today, New York band youbet have shared “Worship,” the final preview of their self-titled album, out today, Friday, May 1st via Hardly Art. The song is a calling card for the leveled-up songwriting and production of their eponymous record, combining gritty distortion with gorgeously layered vocal hooks and expertly crafted turns of phrase.
"'Worship' has playful energy with a touch of evil,” shares vocalist and principal songwriter Nick Llobet. “The upbeat, happy arrangement is undercut by the darkness of the lyrics. I picture the “lick my face” line in the chorus as a demon dog from hell being summoned, only to subvert its dark purpose. This balance of playful and evil is central to the youbet world."
It’s no wonder then that the accompanying video finds the band performing in a surveilled basement, existing underneath the apartment of the devil himself, who seems to be nothing more than an affable office worker.
Originally formed as a solo project helmed by Llobet, youbet sees the project evolve into a duo, with Micah Prussack and Llobet proudly acting as both explorer and guide, sharing three-dimensional musical sculptures so confidently and esoterically their own that they couldn’t have been released under any other name but youbet.
Created in motion and shaped between long stretches of touring, the album reflects a moment of ecstatic possibility and grit. Both sharpened and expansive, youbet grows from the confines of home recording and “bedroom pop” into something sturdier, louder, and unmistakably their own. For their part, Llobet sees the resulting album as a statement of that hard work and the opening of a new chapter. “It’s the beginning of a new era for youbet,” they say. “The band started as a sort of bedroom project for myself, but it has transformed into something expansive since working with Micah. It’s like we’re running a family business.”
Oreder youbet's self-titled album from Hardly Art HERE.
WATCH “WORSHIP” OFFICIAL VIDEO
youbet announced the record last month with lead single and album opener “Ground Kiss,” a late-night existential query written after the dissolution of an 11-year relationship. “The song represents an endless search for that something and the rebuilding that goes along with trial and failure,” shares principal songwriter Nick Llobet, the song uniting the spectrum between clouds of plucked Big Thief-esque glow and bursts of distorted frustration, flexing the nuanced production of longtime collaborator Katie Von Schleicher.
Follow up single “Receive” finds lead singer Nick Llobet carving away at generational conflict, tethering propulsive bursts of guitar reverie with raw emotional vigor. The recent “Undefined” is a gorgeously patient track that carefully balances art pop experimentalism with power pop hookiness in its widescreen chorus.
Read the band’s recent profile in Rolling Stone, where they discuss their work as educators and their newly collaborative approach with Simon Vozick-Levinson.
WATCH “GROUND KISS,” “RECEIVE,” & “UNDEFINED”
“I myself am a constant student of life, of creating,” Llobet says. “I see people's creative anxieties because I have lived them. It’s very therapeutic because I can tell that I'm giving people strong advice based on all my failures.”
When Llobet relocated to New York from Denver in 2013, they had started forging connections in the local scene, but it wasn’t until meeting Prussack that they discovered a different level of musical connection. When the duo started playing together, they quickly realized their uniquely shared musical language and eagerness to learn from everything, connecting over a vast array of musical influence and their own practice of teaching.
youbet demonstrates Llobet and Prussack’s ability to weave beguiling musical and lyrical expression, pushing and pulling at the resulting mesh. Developing that kind of finely tuned fusion between complex musicality and deeply felt emotion required more than hoping inspiration would strike. Instead, the process of creating youbet involved countless hours of precise engineering, meticulous craft, and gritty dedication. “Throughout the album, there’s unique interplay and variation that you can only get from a lot of hard work together,” says Prussack.
The band is currently touring North America alongside Remember Sports before embarking on a run with Hudson Freeman and their own headline dates.
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