6/10

Originally part of sibling duo Herman Dune, singer-songwriter David Ivar has spent the last few years building up a repertoire of new material under his new solo guise Black Yaya. While Herman Dune was an undoubtable cult success around the world, the debut self-titled release under his new moniker is looking to progress on that original sound by refining it and creating an album with a far more simple and focused direction.

The result is a positively inspired album that seems to mirror the crooning rock sound of Elvis Costello and Tom Petty. While some may pick up on its obvious country music vibes, the record as a whole is a much more varied affair as the instrumentation and songwriting style seems to change from track to track. Giving it a eclectic sound that only seems held together by the emotion and content Black Yaya injects into all his music.

While it's diverse approach does make it hard to enjoy the album as a whole, there is still a lot to love on this debut full-length. His voice has this lullabying quality that allows him to create extremely heart-wrenching material that soothes your soul just by hearing it.