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“Sour Grapes is basically about the irony of being a kid and looking forward to all the freedom you’re going to have as an adult and then you get there and feel like you actually had it better as a kid.” Yenn explains.
Alt-pop artist Maya Yenn is back with another freshly-squeezed offering. Refreshing as a tall, ice-cold glass of lemonade and just as bitter, “Sour Grapes” is a downright catchy tune full of nostalgic warmth, bleeps and bloops from half-remembered video games and R&B-inspired beats that speaks to the frustrations of growing up.
The track opens with the click of a loading cassette tape as it warps into life and Yenn hums along serenely to a woozy lo-fi-sounding guitar. The heady scene is abruptly shattered by a video game gun blaring like an alarm clock at 6am and we are plunged straight into the track: defiant hip-hop-tinged beats, 8-bit-sounding bass and insistent vocals envelope you as you’re met head-on with Yenn’s confessional lyrics, “Supposed to be on top now / Supposed to have it all figured out now”.
“‘Sour Grapes’ is basically about the irony of being a kid and looking forward to all the freedom you’re going to have as an adult and then you get there and feel like you actually had it better as a kid.” Yenn explains.
The subject matter is timely. With the cost-of-living crisis in the UK, an increasingly digital and removed world and impending climate disaster, it’s no wonder that research indicates Gen Z to be the most stressed demographic. The song confidently asserts itself as an ode to burned out 20-somethings for when adulthood just isn’t what you bargained for.
But the bitterness is mixed with self-aware levity. Just after the line, “Supposed to be on TV / It should have been easy”, the production cuts to a sample of a “live-studio-audience” laughing mockingly. The self-satire is certainly no accident:
“I’m definitely making fun of myself a little bit in the song for being a kind of a brat but also earnestly frustrated with how hard being an adult often is.” Yenn admits.
The perfect glass of freshly-squeezed pop for when adulthood just isn’t sweet enough
In typical Maya Yenn style, the track is underpinned by a skittish beat made from a tapestry of sampled sounds from childhood: there’s Gameboy-style bleeps and bloops, juvenile sounding mouth pops and even zippers sliding up and down at times.
In the final chorus of the track, the joyous, bombastic brass juxtaposes sharply with the bitterness of the lyrics, “Is it always going to be like this? / Don’t say it’s gotta be like this” Yenn repeatedly asks as trumpets and horns soar above a bright bouncing beat, but no answer comes.
When explaining the meaning behind the song, Yenn said, “It’s about a lot of things to me but on a very personal level, ‘Sour Grapes’ is an attempt to make peace with adult life not being all it’s cracked up to be.”
A short and sweet (and sour) track that doesn’t leave you long after it’s finished, “Sour Grapes” is a characterful take on the frustrations and disappointments of adulthood and the wistful nostalgia that sets in long after childlike wonder has passed. It may sound like a bleak subject to choose to explore, but there is something refreshingly honest about the lyrics and as a result, “Sour Grapes” is the perfect glass of freshly-squeezed pop for when adulthood just isn’t sweet enough.
For immediate release
Maya Yenn - Sour Grapes
Song credits:
Written by and co-produced by Maya Yenn
Co-produced and mixed by Michelangelo Dousis
Mastered by Alex Gordon, Abbey Road Studios
Trumpet and flugelhorn performed by Gary Alesbrook