To say that 2008 has been an excellent year for music so far is something of an understatement. In its previous incarnation Onebrow hosted my review of The Mars Volta’s The Bedlam in Goliath, which in any normal year would probably have walked off with the album of the year crown in February. Not so this year however which has already hosted at least two albums which have topped it. The first of these to arrive was Youtmovies’ excellent debut LP. It’s a bit of a cliche when considering Youthmovies, but it really is hard to believe that this is their first album proper. They’ve been around for so long now you’d have though they were on at least their second album.
The album begins on a bit of an odd note for myself with the excellent Magdalen Bridge. The first half of which probably takes a little too long to get going, this is more than made up for by the excellent second half of the song however. This is perhaps the weakest track on the album precisely because of this slow start. I know gentle introductions can be nice, but it just takes too long to build. Additionally I found it a little disorienting at first as the song appears on Jonquil’s album Lions, albeit in a different form. As I’d heard that version first it took a few listens to re-adjust.
The next big point of contention for myself was the guitar at the beginning of The Last Night Of The Proms which was again a little odd at first. A few listens revealed it to be pleasing however. As a song it’s really interesting, it does achieve the remarkable feat of sounding like The Last Night Of The Proms while being an endearing and genuinely enthralling pop song. That it can pull this off is largely due to the trumpet, which gives the feel of The Last Night without compromising any of the other instruments, or the composition generally.
Cannulae is an interesting case study, it’s the song on the album where the influence of Steve Reich is most obvious. This stripped down minimalist song has a fairly consistent guitar riff with fairly interesting percussion playing over the top of it. The song also ends with a pleasing refrain of “Rattle, snakes, snakes snakes.” Which is whispered wonderously.
If Cannulae was minimalist in terms of music, If You’d Seen A Battlefield does the same with lyrics. There are very few lyrics in the song, but a fair amount of singing. That this doesn’t seem overly repetitious is a neat trick to be able to pull off. If You’d Seen A Battlefield could easily be seen as the centerpiece of the album. It’s a pulsating song, and pulls off that particular Youthmovies trick of moving through a number of different sections but still remaining an extemely cohesive whole.
Something For The Ghosts has a habit of washing over me, it’s a very comforting song much like the album generally. With many interesting layers and again it’s a relatively song with a number of distinct, but related, sections. I always seem to pay attention as the song build to its climax and Andrew Mears can be heard singing “Motorway barriers make me feel like we’re going to crash.” The song seems to rouse from its slumber at this point and kick into a higher gear. Really from there the album never slows down.
The penultimate track; Archive It Everywhere was one of four I was familiar with before the album. However hearing the album version was a real treat. It’s another wonderuflly layered and sectioned song. With the ultimate for myself coming with the chanty vocals (it’s a recurring theme in songs I like) after a particularly dynamic section of singing from Andrew Mears. It’s such a delicate track generally, so melodic and with lots of wonderful little details. Yet being melodic doesn’t doesn’t mean songs lack punch, indeed Yotuhmovies land many more hits than any of their contemporaries.
I’ve not looked at every track here, and that’s definitely not my intention. I just wanted to highlight a few bits and pieces about the album. But more generally what makes Youthmovies so important is that they definitely don’t fit neatly into a genre. They deal with largely melodic music and more than a touch of the unusual and bizarre on terms of song structure. They have a good sense of dynamics more than anything, they know when a song needs to change volume, or pace to keep things interesting. Things march inexorably onwards, building towards a climx which never dissapoints. They’re not post-rock, they’re not pure pop, they’re not indie. They just make good music, that this music is so beautiful and fragile while also being punchy and substantial is a remarkable feat. Good Nature is easily one of my favourite albums of the decade so far, it’s a wonderful little gem which will sadly probably be overlooked by many not willing to give it a chance.