EP: Your Friends Are Looking For You - Ohyeahsumi

words: Kat Harding

The opening track of ohyeahsumi’s All Your Friends Are Looking For You, “Cosmos Bowling” has nearly eight seconds of silence before the track gets going, building an excitement for the breathy, whispering vocals and sweetly plucked guitar chords. Twins Lena and Rena Vernon are Ohyeahsumi, and they’ve created a work of bedroom pop art, a soft and warm EP. I’m a twin myself, and while my sister and I are close, never in a million years could we collaborate to put out something like Ohyeahsumi have. Some twins connect on a deeper level, artistically fitting like puzzle pieces coming together to create something magnificent, and they’ve combined Lena’s musical talent with Rena’s writing skills. “I hear the good girls die. I hear the bad boys hide,” they tell us on that opening track, like a lo-fi Lana Del Rey. The sweet track ends too quickly and “Drag” picks up. They sing in almost a round on the chorus, their voices coming through in waves, like one sister is near and the other is far and we’re in the middle.

Many of the songs address growing pains in relationships: on “Daisy” they lament “Your mama thinks I’m lazy” and in “Hey,” the singers are pondering what might be the end of a relationship saying “Don’t ask me why I leave, I go when and where I wanna go.” The lo-fi nature of the tracks makes it feel like we’re peeking in on a diary or journal, getting an intimate glimpse of their private thoughts. They remark on the way a dress hangs on their bodies on “Daisy” and describe their latest crush on “Snowflakes,” a bad boy who remained in their hearts for just six months.

On “Best Friends” it feels like they could be talking about each other -- how they show up to parties early, and at the same time, but how they’ve broken each others’ hearts. That’s the nature of being a sibling and on a deeper level, being a twin. You’re so incredibly close you know exactly how to shatter the other person, and often while fighting, you do. The song doesn’t end with any resolution from the fight and we’re left wondering what happened as the song ends, but we can assume they’ve moved on and rebuilt, as twins often do.

Pick up the album from their Bandcamp page.