Four years after his last LP, Texas Piano Man, a powerful record that saw him switch from guitar to piano and play some of his most boisterous songs yet, Robert Ellis is back and again completely reinventing his sound. He picks the guitar back up for this, his first release on his own label, but has a much starker, stripped down sound that’s unlike any of his earlier efforts.
His solemn, sometimes almost whispered vocals are only accompanied by his nylon string guitar and upright bass, and every so often a piece of handheld percussion. “I’ve spent my entire career trying to make records that I thought would be ‘exciting’ to other people, but the albums I’ve always been most drawn to are small and gentle and soft,” Ellis says. “The more I sat with these new songs, the more I realized that their stillness was their strength.”
Belying the fact that Yesterday’s News was recorded live to tape in just two days, there is no sign of a rushed product here. The opening song, “Gene,” is remarkably delicate through the nuanced finger picking and lyrics that roll out like a stream of consciousness conversation with the listener. The title track sounds like Ellis covering a long-lost classic. In fact, there seem to be parallels between this record and Willie Nelson’s 1978 classic Stardust, an album that saw him tackling pop standards that on the surface would seem absurd coming from the leader of the outlaw country movement. Like Nelson, Ellis has never been one to pay attention to current musical trends and to stick with what is expected of him.
The nine songs here include two instrumentals, and the stripped-down nature of this album allows Ellis’ lyrics to take the spotlight here. The result can be jarring at first, especially coming after songs like “Fucking Crazy” and “Topo Chico” off his 2019 release, but once you settle into the vibe, the clam, almost serene nature of the record gets more appealing with each listen.
