When Nashville-based singer Winston Yellen made his debut as Night Beds in 2012 with Country Sleep, he arrived sounding like the next great voice in folk, finding an alt-country backdrop and lending his soaring voice with no sound of twang to be heard. But after going radio silent on new music until popping up on a track by Danish producer Tomas Barford, Yellen returns sounding like he’s been on a strict diet of synth.
“Me, Liquor & God” has the name of a song that would fit right at home on the country record of your choosing, but there isn’t a strummed string to be found. In their place are waves of low-tide synth that crash just below the surface of Yellen’s ethereal coo. His vocal track gets a light layer of auto-tune powdered atop it, but nothing that takes away from controlled tremble.