“Better Luck Next Time” by Maya Yenn
Written for Tongue Tied Magazine, June 2022
Pulling influence from similar artists - FKA Twigs, James Blake, BANKS - emerging electro, alt-pop artist, Maya Yenn, is making her place among the greats of her genre with the release of “Better Luck Next Time”.
According to Yenn, this song tells the “perspective of a young man who has prioritized his career over everything else, so much so, he’s still trying to get a report out while his plane is going down”. An interesting take on humankind’s self-destructive behavior, we tend to ignore the consequences of our head-strong actions when we disregard how they might affect our future. When the theoretical plane of your life is going down, what is going to be the most important to you? Having fun and spending time with the ones you love? Or working late nights to please your boss and passing on plans to catch up on chores?
Written and co-produced by the artist herself, “Better Luck Next Time” very seamlessly merges an electronic beat with pop music influences, making sure that one doesn’t overpower the other. In a way, this could be a metaphor to finding the perfect work / life balance. After listening to the song a few times over, I am still in awe over Yenn’s beautiful harmonies starting off the song, then pulling you in deeper with each word. It’s incredibly descriptive and illustrates the scene and emotions of the song perfectly.
Maya Yenn has grown in popularity through social media, especially on TikTok where she is known for exhibiting musical beats that she created using sounds and samples from everyday objects. A true DIY-artist. Yenn takes almost full creative control of her work, being credited with writing, producing, directing, and even creating the cover art to her own music. Prior to the release of “Better Luck Next Time”, Yenn had only two releases out on Spotify - “How Much Sadness Can You Swallow?” and “tiptoe”. These two tracks are very similar in sound to this new track, but as a young artist, Maya has more than enough time to branch out and explore her sound to its fullest extent. “Better Luck Next Time” stands out among the two for being much more on the side of electro-alt, while the other two stand closer to the genre of pop. If this is the first time you’re hearing of Maya Yenn, just know this definitely won’t be the last.
Maya Yenn
Listen to “Better Luck Next Time” here.