Marcel Winatschek

Ten Times Before I Admitted It

Clicked on the video for Catastrophe by Yumi Zouma only because I assumed, from the name, that she was a Japanese enka singer—one of those warm-voiced women who makes you nostalgic for somewhere you’ve never been. Wrong. Yumi Zouma is a New Zealand dream-pop band, and Catastrophe sounds almost exactly like every hushed, drifting indie track released in the five years before 2015. Whispered vocals. A melody that hooks without demanding anything. The kind of song that fills a room without taking up any space.

By the time I noticed I’d played it ten times, I’d stopped caring about any of that. Some songs just work. You don’t have to explain it.