Album: The Good Youth // Blitz Kids 20/01/14

©Blitz Kids

Blitz Kids are back with their second studio album ‘The Good Youth’ and they have struck gold. The 12-track strong album is brimming with the pleasures of being young contrasting with making it as a band and the ever-building pressure to succeed. On a whole, it holds a pessimistic vibe yet it is filled with honesty and has a slick feel and tinges of optimism. The songs take you by your hand and, track by track, show you the moments the band have experienced since their last album and showcase their development.

The single ‘Run For Cover’ is a standout track. Catchy and cocky, it manages to show off Joe James’ improved vocals and tight instrumentals and features the old Blitz Kids gang-vocals and a raucous chorus which is bound to keep the old die-hards happy.

‘Perfect’, a bouncy pop-rock track again features the much loved gang-vocals mixed with an energetic melody and radio-friendly pop. ‘I’ve got something special kept up my sleeve’ is definitely referring to this album which, eight tracks in, is already enjoyable on the first listen. The quartet are unmistakably developing their ideas and breaching genre-boundaries, and the results are effortlessly smooth.

Bouncy-pop contrasts with realistic and retrospective lyrics in the ballad-like track ‘Long Road’. It captures the pressure of making it with ‘they’ll just rip out my bones till there’s no flesh in sight’ and contains the fittingly retrospective lyrics ‘it’s a long road to the top when you’re on your own’. The track has vivid and dark imagery which is delivered fantastically with the confidence of a well-established band.

Along with the newer ideas in ‘The Good Youth’, the older Blitz Kids elements are still intermingled in the form of fantastic gang-vocals, ‘woah-ah’s and powerful choruses which give a reminder of and the same feeling of excitement of older Blitz Kids tracks. The mix of loud songs and almost dance-anthem-like songs is phenomenal and gives a sense of the band honing and perfecting their style. Already on my fifth play, the tracks just get better and better as you uncover witty, metaphorical lyrics, new melodies and sharp riffs. With each replay, the tracks are in no way losing their appeal. The energy and confidence the band hold is intense and this energy will definitely be transferred incredibly when they play these fresh tracks live.

‘The Good Youth’ is set to turn heads and proves Blitz Kids have bigger and better things ahead of them. Give it a listen, you won’t be disappointed.


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