Petey USA - The Yips

2025 • CAPITOL RECORDS • INDIE / ALTERNATIVE / EMO

77/100

“I’ve got the yips,” in case you couldn’t tell from the album and opening track sharing that title. Peter Martin—also known as Petey USA and formerly known as just Petey, which made my Last.fm think I listened to a lot of Petey Pablo—is a prolific man. He started making comedic videos on TikTok during the pandemic because what else was he to do? Then he released his debut album, Lean Into Life, in 2021, because what else was he to do?

Petey USA’s third album, The Yips, was released today, July 11 on Capitol Records. He enlisted producer Chris Walla, the revered producer that indie artists bring on board when they are ready to level up (see: Foxing’s Nearer My God, Ratboys’ The Window, and Great Grandpa’s Four of Arrows). And The Yips is a level up, in a sense. The production is crisper, slowly rushing along with a calming busyness, sort of like white noise (complimentary). But while The Yips is Petey USA’s most consistent album, its highs are less high, and its lows are less low (derogatory). What it gains in cohesion, it lacks in endearing shittiness.

The Yips is a collection of tracks ranging from alternative-pop, peripherally emo, and heartland ballads that eavesdrop on conversations in a dive bar. The scenes are clear; you can almost smell the cigarette smoke wafting in the door, mixing with the Fabuloso and spilled beer. On “Breathing the Same Air,” some companions sit in silence and watch the game: “Let’s grab another beer / we’re not getting any younger / we sat in the corner / had the barhand throw the game on / no one asked a single question / that meant anything to anyone.” Or one narrator expresses concern to their friend about the friend’s new romantic interest on “Model Train Town”: “Heard you met some guy / at a party the other night / he was the coolest guy you’d ever met / he made you laugh and he smoked cigarettes / when we all hung out I didn’t feel the same / he was self-involved and acting kinda lame.”

But the payoffs are cheaper than those on “I’ll Wait,” “Freedom to Fuck Off,” or “Don’t Tell the Boys” from USA and Lean Into Life. There, Petey was a little out of control, occasionally, uncontrollably bursting into a snarling scream or using some low-tech software to produce the hell out of his tracks. The risks in those rough edges lend the substance more credibility. On The Yips, apathetic, existential longing permeates, but the emotional punches fall flatter, and the thudding beats don’t help. Instead, they lend themselves to being stuck, to having, well, the yips.

To be fair, the characters are stuck. “Ran to the well / well the well ran dry / took a bucket to the lake for a fresh supply / lost at sea while the sirens sing / ‘this is what it feels like to not feel anything,’” is the main refrain of “The Milkman,” which Mark Hoppus apparently helped name. Or, “Time keeps moving on / and there’s nothing we can do about it / and I don’t wanna waste another minute / going on and on about this” in “Spirit Animal.” Even when we’re experiencing active harm, that pain is known, which feels safer than breaking free into the unknown and causing a stir: “This bucket of water is tearing my arm off / didn’t ask any questions / didn’t wanna cause a problem,” goes “This Bucket of Water.” But sometimes, the stagnant stuckness starts to rot, such as on “As Two People Drift Apart”: “Funny thing ‘bout time / they say it heals all wounds / seems ours have festered / in the absence of truth.”

And Petey USA remains cleverly insightful. Take “God Is the Gray,” for example: “‘Til I found God in the gray / fuckin’ A / I don’t need any help today / and I found heaven in the dirt / one part water / one part earth / don’t need a job to know my worth.” Or, “I burned my hand on the stovetop the other night / I wonder what it’s like to be on fire / turns out you’ve got to only feel something a little bit / to imagine what it’s like to feel it all over” on “Ask Someone Else.” And he still creates mental images so clear it’s like they’re on your screen right now: “As she lost interest / his hairline receded / he grew a neck beard / and put on weight,” on “I Am Not a Cowboy,” which observes a divorcing couple.

The Yips’ highest value is in being there for you. “I’m just singing about being there for your friends,” Petey said. Conversations require at least two parties, and the characters in The Yips have at least one thing going for them: someone to listen to them. If no one else will listen to you, The Yips will.

PLAYER COMP: TYLER HERRO

High floor, unknown ceiling, but hasn’t continued the initial rapid developmental trajectory