Perils of the Sea is the collaboration between Mark Kozelek, best known from his work in Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters, and Jimmy Lavalle, better known as The Album Leaf. The result is basically pure relaxing and entertaining magic. Both men adjust their typical aesthetic to meld into one another, therefore purists of either individually may be slightly thrown off by the outcome, but if you are new to these two artists I feel like you’re really in for a treat. The album is basically Mark Kozelek telling a collection of stories with his soulful coupling style while backed by Jimmy Lavalle’s synthy, almost ambient tracks. The two combine to create an experience of musical storytelling like I personally have never quite heard before.

The stories range from the mundane to the deeply personal while simultaneously maintaining an almost off the top of the head freshness. ‘Ceing Gazing’ would probably stand out as the most aggressively mundane. It basically reads as the stream of consciousness thoughts that Kozelek experiences while staring at his ceiling. He discusses being jet lagged and opening mail. The thoughts jump from thoughts of his grandfather to family that he’s lost touch with and is brought home at the end of the song when he reveals that these are all simply concepts that run through his mind while he’s “ceiling gazing.” Earlier in the album in the song ‘Gustavo’, the mundanity and really novel appeal of the album is brought into sharp focus when he details buying a fixer-upper house and hiring day laborers, one of which is of course named Gustavo. He ends up befriending the men and they live with him for some time. The story takes a sad turn when Gustavo is pulled over for drunk driving and deported. Kozelek has to fix up the house himself and the true hilarity within the song arises when someone asks him if he ever thinks of Gustavo and he replies, “really I don’t give much thought to Gustavo,” well, except when he has to write a song, I guess.

The album begins with the deeply personal. ‘What Happened To My Brother’ is an opus where Kozelek laments about his brother, who is apparently a shell of his formerly charismatic self due to drug addiction. ’1939′ the second song on the album is a story about stealing his mother’s 1936 dime that was given to her by her father before the war. He steals the dime buys weed and takes a nap, his mother is crushed, and he vows to get the dime back to her somehow. Honestly I don’t want to ruin the end of the story, but it’s a perfect example of what makes the album so great. It’s a captivating story presented artfully and with beautiful musical backing and while it seems to simply be a story about stealing ten cents it really reveals the love he has for his mother and the selfishness of childhood, both eternally relatable themes. So, while the album is almost comically banal at times, the stories told within behold grander messages that are engaging and rich.

I’ll end with a description of my favorite song on the album, ‘You Missed My Heart’. In the story Kozelek describes catching and stabbing his girlfriend’s lover, having an altercation with his girlfriend, attempting to escape from jail, getting fatally wounded, and it’s all joined together by one simple line. “You missed my heart.” If you don’t want to experience this album now, I don’t think we have anything to talk about… 9.2/10

You Missed My Heart

From the first moment I heard Erika Spring‘s angelic “oh, in the danger zone,” over Airbird & Napolian‘s gigantic beats and slap bass, I knew something special was about to happen. By the time it ended, I felt like it was over far too quickly for such a wonderfully composed track. It was over as quickly as I fell in love with it. While not much is known about Airbird & Napolian just yet, Cascine promises a proper full length by the end of the year… which we eagerly await. The first thing that came to mind when I heard it was what you see: The Joker as played by Jack Nicholson skipping into Gotham’s art museum with his henchmen, blasting Prince and trashing everything. It very quickly became completely about the Joker and nothing else… just like most of us remember it anyway.

Folly & The Hunter: Tragic Care – In Folly & The Hunter‘s own summary of Tragic Care, they describe the album as finding “beauty in the breakdown”, and I could not agree more with this assessment. This is the sophomore album from the Canadian trio. Tragic Care is a response to heartbreak and tragedy, which clearly translates. There are elements of the album that are very comforting and it was obviously a cathartic release for the members, especially singer Nick Vallee, whose real life experiences were the main inspiration.

The subject matter is both heart-wrenching and relatable. Anyone who has experienced a failed relationship or lost love will be able to connect with the honesty in the lyrics. “I have done the best I could/didn’t touch you like it should/So I’m propelled into the wind/I didn’t learn and I didn’t win” (‘Tragic Care’). There are so many instances of heartache and anguish throughout the entire album, like in the song ‘Mask’, where Vallee sings of his heart going “almost monotone”. This balanced with the thoughtful instrumentation creates something that as a whole is very accomplished and beautiful.

Various elements come together to make this album a true piece of art but the main strength is in the songwriting. The lyrics are quite literally like poetry set to music. They are a paintbrush that create beautiful imagery in the listener’s mind. It doesn’t hurt when said lyrics are being sung by Vallee, whose stunningly lovely vocals are reminiscent  of artists like  Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and Fleet Foxes‘ Robin Pecknold.

One of the standout songs from the album is the track ‘Vultures’, which pairs dark imagery with a beautiful melody. “I give up, I repent/my money is spent/I am rotting to the core/it’s what the vultures hunger for”. Though the album’s focus is on hurt and loss, there are times where it also offers a glimmer of hope: “Strong ideas take so much space that you feel you have died when they’ve left/But a warmth is replacing the regret I held in my chest” (‘Our Stories End’). Though most of the actual lyrics in some way involve sorrow, the music almost feels uplifting as you listen to it. All in all, Tragic Care is an excellent piece of work, especially when it comes to songwriting. It is the perfect album for those times when you need to soothe a broken heart, need a good cry, or just want to listen to something that is both haunting and touching…7.4/10

How It Came Down

Gorgeous Hands: Tender – The four-piece band out of Austin, Texas have kicked things up a notch for the release of their debut album, Tender. Often known for making and releasing their music and videos themselves, this DIY-heavy band has taken to kickstarter to raise funds that will help cover the cost of promotion and distribution of their album. They wanted to make sure their fans got the best record possible, and they have fully succeeded. Comprised of brothers Rusty and Chris Galis, Charlie Magnone and Cullen Faulk, it is easy to tell that Gorgeous Hands put their heart and soul into Tender.

‘Contract Burn’ is the pop-heavy opening song. The harmonies are stunning and deceivingly upbeat. They cleverly disguise the trials and tribulations of young love: “I could never love you/I could never be that way.” There is no better way to begin an album than with something catchy and relatable. They will have you hooked long before you realize the subject matter is not all happy and summery, and you were in a blissful state of denial from the start.

The newest single off of Tender is ‘Desperate Mainstream’, and can be summed up with one culminated lyric: “I only need you when money is tight.”

Gorgeous Hands gets grungier with ‘Pieces (I Can’t Begin to Stop Loving You)’. The deeper tone and subtext in the beginning of the song are a vast departure from the first two lively songs, but in the end, the essence we loved about the beginning of the record swings right back around. The phrase that also gives the song its subtitle, “I can’t begin to stop loving you”, is repeated twelve times and will forever be burned in your brain.

Tender continues with an enigmatic energy. ‘Domestic Abuse’ is filled with youthful ambitions, ‘Goodbye Good Vibrations’ gets a little trippy and while I wanted to hate ‘Devil is a Woman’ based on its title alone, the song is eerily incandescent, and unlike anything I have ever heard. The record comes to fruition with its final two songs, ‘Songing’ and ‘Don’t Go’. They are equally as intense, and yet infinitely different in their own right.

It is always refreshing to hear a band’s passion come through on their debut album. They truly made this one for their fans, and their fans were able to return the favor by contributing to their Kickstarter…8.0/10 

Desperate Mainstream

Daft Punk: Random Access Memories – It seems like that for the past 7 or 8 years the whole landscape of popular music has been trying to cash in on the Euro-House aesthetic that Daft Punk created. The most obvious example would be Kanye West sampling ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’, but you can see the influence everywhere. Will.I.Am even convinced the Biebs to sing a few bars of Daft Punk for one of his latest singles. Yes, everyone has been trying really hard to sound like Daft Punk, except for Daft Punk apparently. For better or for worse, the duo are giving their synthesizers a break to show off their songwriting skills, as performed by a star-studded ensemble of session musicians and singers on Random Access Memories. The result is, sadly, very hit and miss. Don’t get me wrong; there’s some real gold here, but when it’s bad it’s fucking gross. What I intend to do is to give you a guide to help you navigate the album without being supremely disappointed.

The opening track is good. It slides in like a cool player with funky guitar, bass, and drums, creating a kind of ’70s feel… proving they are indeed human after all. Most of the album follows this instrumentation palette. The vocals are the only familiar Daft Punk element – they still have the robot-y vocoder effect going. It sounds nice, but it’s a little disappointing. Aside from the fact that it defies our Daft Punk expectations, it’s kind of sad that they are jumping on the whole retro thing. I don’t know how many times I’ve said the word retro when reviewing an album. I was kind of expecting DP to break the mold, seeing as how they had previously been so groundbreaking. Ironic that the lyrics to the song are “give life back to music” when it’s working with such a stale concept.

Track 2 sounds a little more familiar. It sounds like Daft Punk, but trying to be slow and deep. Listenable though. Track 3 is where things get weird. ‘Giorgio By Moroder’ is 9 minutes of Giorgio Moroder recounting his past life with musical accompaniment. You can tell that Daft Punk is trying to do something really epic, but why are we supposed to care about Moroder? I guess it’s a thinker. Skip to ‘Instant Crush’, the collab featuring Julian Casablancas. The song has the simplicity you’d expect from a Strokes song and the catchiness that Daft Punk usually produces. It’s the most successful attempt the duo makes on the album to actually write a song. The only fault with the song is that Casablanca’s lyrics are little too verbose and filtered to actually understand. It seems like it’s supposed to be kind of a depressing love song.

Skip to ‘Get Lucky’ (and for Godsakes don’t listen to ‘Touch’… it’s absolutely embarrassing). ‘Get Lucky’ is a sickeningly groovy song featuring the sultry crooning of Pharrell. It sounds like it was designed to be played at wedding receptions. Your parents will probably like it a lot. It does what Daft Punk does best: a fun beat with a lyrical mantra over it. If the point of the album was to show that they could do their thing with real instruments and singers, this song is a great success. If I had my way, the album would end here. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It sort of wanders through a variety of uncomfortable half-baked ideas (featuring Panda Bear) before finally petering out like an unsatisfying delayed ejaculation.

Kudos for trying to explore new ground, but the fruit of DP’s labors are not always enjoyable on this one. It would get at least an 8 if they had trimmed it down to a lean EP consisting of:
1. Give Life Back to Music
2. The Game of Love
3. Instant Crush
4. Get Lucky
But they didn’t, so… 6.9/10

Give life back to music 

Vampire Weekend: Modern Vampires of the City – “I’m not excited, but should I be?” questions front man Ezra Koenig in the song ‘Unbelievers’, the first track off of the new album that they performed for the general public. Well one thing is for sure, fans should be very excited for Modern Vampires of the City.

There is no denying at this point that Vampire Weekend‘s members are indie rock heavyweights and true professionals. They are one of those rare bands that have managed to gain a good deal of mainstream success will still maintaining their “indie cred”. With their first two albums, the self-titled Vampire Weekend (2008) and Contra  (2010), and after producing numerous hit singles, the band has gained a rather devoted and ample fan-base. With so much time passing between Contra and Modern Vampires of the City, simply saying this new effort from the Ivy League rockers was highly-anticipated would be quite the understatement. I am pleased to report that it was very much worth the wait and that fans will be anything but disappointed with the third album.

This is definitely a venture into new territory for these guys. The album has a much more mature, grown-up quality to it. The band has traded in their usual quirkiness for something that is slightly more toned-down and relaxed than their usual work. Something that Vampire Weekend has always received a lot of flak from critics about is how their lyrics at time seem nonsensical. On Modern Vampires of the City, the lyrics are both meaningful and relatable, taking on issues like romantic complications: “If I can’t trust you then damn it Hannah/there’s no future/there’s no answer” from ‘Hannah Hunt’, as well as “Oh I was born to live without you but I’m never gonna understand/never understand” from ‘Everlasting Arms’. The lyrics throughout the album, though still fun, are more clear and grounded in reality.

In addition to having a more calmed down pace overall, the song ‘Hudson’ has an eerie and darker sound which is a complete 180 from what you usually get from Vampire Weekend. What it does is prove that these guys aren’t just a one-trick pony and are capable of growth. That’s one thing about Ezra Koenig, Rostam Batmanglij, and Chris squared (Baio and Tomson); they’re unpredictable. You never really know what you’re going to get. It is and always has been impossible to peg their music as one specific genre.

Though the album as a whole takes on a slower pace, you still hear the occasional track that is high-energy, fun-loving and brings you back to their classic material. Both ‘Finger Back’ and ‘Worship You’ capture that chaotic brand of energy that Vampire Weekend has become famous for. With so many crowd-pleasers on the album, it is an arduous task to try and pick out one track that stands out among the rest. You’ve got ‘Step’ and ‘Diane Young’, the first singles released upon completion of the album, which had fans hyped to hear the new release in its entirety. The powerhouse hit, though, would have to be ‘Ya Hey’, which the band just recently released a lyric video for on YouTube.

There seems to be a thematic focus on the concept of time with two separate songs, ‘Don’t Lie’ and ‘Hudson’, using the sound of a clock ticking in the background, with lyrics such as “I wanna know, does it bother you/the low sound of a ticking clock?/There’s a lifetime right in front of you/and everyone I know” and “The time has come/the clock is such a drag/All you who change your stripes can wrap me in the flag”.

As previously stated, Modern Vampires of the City was well worth the wait. People have come to expect a lot from these guys and they never fail to deliver. The perfect combination of talent and smarts, they know exactly how to market their music to a broad audience without alienating any of their already acquired fans. They know what they’re doing and though only on their third album, Vampire Weekend has surely carved out their place in music history… 10/10

Everlasting Arms

Young Wonder: Show Your Teeth EP — This band from Cork, Dublin produces electronic dub-pop music. The duo, Ian Ring and Rachel Koeman, released a self-titled EP in April 2012. Their sound is a combination of airy, electric-feeling vocals, constant synths and big beats with the characteristic dub stop-and-start style. For a newer band Young Wonder’s first album was, in fact, a wonder in its clarity of vision and boldness of execution. The song ‘Tumbling Backwards’ gained recognition from fans immediately and the new EP seems to be a strong follow-up to their first release.

One thing fans will realize is different is the increased vocal presence of Ring on the songs. In ‘Electrified’, though it’s always clear that Koeman is the star, Ring’s supportive background vocals add something really essential to the music. Whether his deeper voice seems to lend depth to the meaning of these songs, or just that it provides more balance, the result is innovative and exciting.

The voice of Rachel Koeman is like nothing you’ve ever heard. High pitched, creaky and slightly abrasive, all of this somehow works with the driving beats, and extremely diverse instrumentals to produce something that will literally blow your mind. Alienesque and deeply otherworldly, you feel like you are listening to music that won’t be played regularly for 50 more years.

The two truly standout songs on the Show Your Teeth EP are ‘Time (feat. Sacred Animals)’ and ‘To You’. ‘Time’ has a more linear feel than most other songs, clearly switching back and forth as Koeman takes one verse, and the lead singer of Sacred Animals takes the other. It allows you to really sit back on your heels and sink past the music to the lyrics, which is harder to do in other songs. “Can I borrow your time/Am I losing my mind/My skin is aching, brittle bones are breaking, breaking/I can feel my life in those hands crumble.” They always have sinister lyrics with imagery so vivid it almost had you cringing.

‘To You’, while also a lyrically somber song, is more upbeat and driving. The instrumental is wilder, with influences from India and Spain, and it makes you almost excited about “seeing you in the next life”. Featuring interesting elements from the first note to the last, this song bears repeat listening.

Show Your Teeth EP offers a lot to fans who are coming back, and even more to people who are new to the band. They are one of the most unique bands I’ve heard recently, and not one song should be skipped, if only so you can further understand how they are manipulating sounds and lyrics (the song ‘Electrified’, especially is a good one for observing this). The only song that left a bit to be desired was the last one, ‘Bullet’ which went a bit too pop-inspired for my tastes, and I felt was incongruous with the rest of the collection. Other than that, dive in—Young Wonder cannot fail to dazzle and amaze…9/10

 To You

Bibio: Silver Wilkinson — Today marks the release of Bibio’s seventh studio album, Silver Wilkinson, and damn, you need to pick this one up.

The first three tracks are exactly what I would expect from Bibio–that melancholy sound that feels as far away as your childhood, yet still retains vibrant quality of a new experience–an aesthetic shaped from  reverberating guitars played through clean amplifiers, swashing pads, spectral vocals and tasteful audio samples like the vinyl static on ‘The First Daffodils’. Yes, Bibio’s simplistic tendencies produce a truly sublime quality to the music. Take ‘Wulf’ for example, a short two-minute piece consisting of ocean samples, a lone guitar played through an aqueous filter, and some other textural instruments which are near indiscernible. That’s all it takes to create a full audio setting with a mood that is strong and comprehensive of a lonely walk on the beach. This track transitions into ‘Mirroring All’, a song that, towards it’s center, illustrates a shifting of tone in the album from a series of washed out photographs to your family’s first color TV set.

Following this is my favorite track, no doubt one that will become a classic in Bibio’s repertoire. ‘À tout à l’heure’ is a bright, two-step song with sexy bass lines, tasty guitar loops, happy-sounding synths and some of the most pleasing vocal melodies I’ve heard. You can’t help but bob your head to this tune. I’m looking forward to blasting it out of my car over the summer.

Upon reaching the seventh track, ‘You’, the aforementioned colored TV set that used to be the subject of bragging amongst the neighbors is suddenly replaced by a 70-inch HD plasma screen. I’ll admit, as soon as this song came on I had to do a double-take. I just wasn’t used to this kind of downtempo trip-hop sound from Bibio. It sounded more like something from Bonobo’s line of work. Needless to say, I was happily impressed.

I won’t ruin the rest of the surprises that are in store for listeners, but I will say that by the time this album finished I wanted more. Of course I put it on loop later, but for a while after that first listen I was left with the same feeling one has when finishing a memoir or watching some incredibly moving drama, which is only to say that it feels like the story of someone’s personal journey. That being said, there is no more perfect way to wrap up this album than with it’s final song, ‘You Won’t Remember…’, a finger-pickin’ tune that sounds both sad and hopeful. Complete with an old-sounding piano, cool vocals and contemplative lyrics, this is a piece that is capable of evoking those feelings which are uniquely attributed to the most treasured of nostalgic memories.

From beginning to end Silver Wilkinson exudes nothing but beauty, creativity, style and the ability to push past it’s comfort zone. As I said, if you’re a fan of all things good, pick this one up…10/10

À tout à l’heure

This Is Your Captain Speaking: ARC – All too often, it seems, we as music fans focus on finding the next new thing, that which is going to change or revolutionize a genre or sound. There are those moments, though, when the new and notable comes about not because they’ve done something novel, but because they took convention, and did it better. The melancholic instrumentals put forth by This Is Your Captain Speaking aren’t anything ground-breaking, but they are great. The Melbourne ensemble gained quick critical acclaim with their premier album, Storyboard, and since then has wasted no time in growing and developing their sound. Now with their third album, ARC, the group has taken those features so distinct to their earlier works and flipped them entirely around. Where once staccato chords were plucked in front of hazy, ambient rhythms, now curt beats of the drum underscore echoing guitar and drifting melodic accompaniments. Still, the songs are distinctly those of This Is Your Captain Speaking, and it is in that ability to maintain identity while progressing their music’s features that the group’s ingenuity really comes through.

‘Welcome’ opens the album with the only track that could truly be considered up-tempo. Free of the dramatic lulls and crescendos indicative of the following tracks, ‘Welcome’ instead hums its way through a repeating sequence fit for light head nodding and foot tapping before tapering off into a slower, more dramatic end that establishes atmosphere for the rest of the album. By the time it rolls over into ‘Whisky Waltz’, things have become murkier but also far more resonate, fading slowly from a soft and repetitive rhythm guitar into an almost inaudible drone before building itself back up with a mix of howling plucked notes and curt syncopation that add a mellifluous weight to the end of the composition. ‘Ascendans’ adds depth to both sound and mental imagery, focusing more energy on lower chords and steady pounds of the bass drum than previous tracks. Its rises and progressive falls create a sensational experience wherein the listener becomes engrossed in the song’s intrinsic emotionality, creating what is, in this reviewer’s opinion, the most enveloping listening experience on the album. The whole thing then comes to a close with ‘Six Mile Gain’, a long and ebbing journey that follows the soulful spirit of the preceding tracks before bringing back the rhythmic levity and stringed textures with which the album opened. In its last moments it fades gently into silence, creating a calm and drifting end that nevertheless leaves the listener craving just a little more.

Among the post-rock set, This Is Your Captain Speaking is not superlative because they are the most innovative, but because they have built so well upon those who have come before them. Taking the timbre of their contemporaries and building in their own subtle, ethereal textures, this is a group better suited to perfecting the genre than revolutionizing it, and in their third album, they take a strong step in that direction. A strong piece that not only progresses the band’s sound but sure up the instrumental veracity of a genre, ARC may well set the current standard for the quintessential post-rock album, and is certainly worth keeping in rotation for as long as it holds true to the band that created it… 8.0/10

Six Mile Gain

At the risk of sounding jaded, it’s pretty rare these days for me to go to a show and for each and every band to knock it out of the park. That was my Tuesday, though, because Youngblood Hawke took over Lincoln Hall on May 7th, and with their powers combined, Youngblood Hawke, Future Feats and The Colourist put on probably the best show I’ve seen so far this year.

Future Feats is very much a pop band. Obviously they’re bringing a pop sound to the table (it would be pretty stupid to call them pop if they weren’t), but it’s also true of their stage presence: their set was beautifully high-energy, and their frontman was one of those people who are a joy to watch onstage, because he really fed off the crowd and channeled that straight back into the music.

Actually, minus the vocals, Future Feats sounds a bit like Passion Pit, especially some of their keyboard work. That said, please don’t just picture Passion Pit with poppy vocals, because that would be oversimplifying Future Feats’s sound, which is an interesting one. Also noteworthy is their drummer; he had some incredible riffs, especially when he was allowed to stand out during songs. That’s the one thing I thought Future Feats could have done better with musically – they almost always had vocals going on in a song, even if they were just a bunch of “yeah yeah”s or something, and it would have been cool to hear their instrumentals on their own a bit more. For example, there was this one fantastic keyboard riff, but instead of playing it on its own once and then layering in the vocals on subsequent repetitions, they had vocals over the keyboard line each time it was played.

I realize that not all bands can be Passion Pit. I’m not asking them to be. Future Feats has got their own sound going on, and it’s a good one. I just think they’re a bit too vocally-driven for how much talent they have as musicians. I don’t feel that Future Feels is tapping into their full potential yet – and to be honest, I’m interested in seeing where they go from here, because this was only their second show as Future Feats. Yeah. They’re definitely worth keeping an eye on. (Bonus: they’re Chicago natives, so I actually can keep an eye on them.)

While Future Feats took a little while for me to get a feel for as a band, the second act, The Colourist, charmed the metaphorical pants right off me from the start. They came tearing out of the gate with a really fun, heavily syncopated song featuring  Adam Castilla, vocals and lead guitar, and Maya Tuttle, vocals and drums, as a brilliant odd couple. Castilla’s sincerity and Tuttle’s sweetness pair wonderfully. I figured, okay, cool, they have their drummer do vocals on their first song – it worked well to get the crowd’s attention – and preemptively wrote it off as effectively a gimmick, which turned out to be incredibly stupid as that’s The Colourist’s actual vocal set up. It’s both of them on almost every song. I cannot explain how good a choice this is.

Take their song ‘Little Games’, for example. Castila does the verses, and Tuttle comes in on the chorus – which, incidentally, happens to be in unison (I mean, she’s up the octave, but you know what I mean). I’m not generally a huge fan of unison because so often it’s not done spectacularly well, but these two are perfectly – perfectly – in sync. And they really got the most out of their voices during their live set, too.

So now that I’ve gone on about them, the bad news is that they’ve got almost nothing recorded. (I know this because I went home after the show, looked them up, and spent the next half hour listening to the two tracks I could find.) I’m almost positive this is their first tour, and they’re obviously a new band, so I’m not panicking about it. They’re in the process of tracking right now, so hopefully it won’t be too long before they’ve got an album out.

If The Colourist threw me a curve ball, I’m not sure what logic dictates the baseball equivalent of Youngblood Hawke is – forker, maybe? Regardless, they were not at all what I was expecting, and so much the better that they weren’t. In fairness,  I swear the 15-second spot for Youngblood Hawke’s ‘We Come Running’ played before every other YouTube video I watched for the entire month of April, so what I was expecting was more or less for the whole show to be basically like that, kind of sugary sweet and a bit repetitive. Obviously, I was several kinds of incredibly wrong on that one. For all of you who are currently thinking, “Of course you were wrong, if you were basing your expectations for a band almost exclusively on 15 seconds’ worth of advertising space,” you are wiser than I, or perhaps you just knew that the part of the song I was hearing over and over featured a children’s choir, so of course it was a sweet but inaccurate sample of Youngblood Hawke’s sound. Long story short, the band ended up being a tremendous amount of fun to listen to.

“Fun” is actually an adjective you can accurately apply to the majority of Youngblood Hawke’s songs. They started off with three people on drums just wailing away on them at the front of the stage, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the set. With an album that came out on April 30, the band is on their second tour right now, and it wasn’t remotely surprising that they’d managed to sell out Lincoln Hall on a Tuesday night.

Their frontman and vocalist, Sam Martin, has this relentlessly manic energy on stage. This translates roughly to “He wouldn’t hold still for even the two seconds I needed to take a decent picture of him”, so no close up for you, but honestly, having seen him on stage, not being able to get a good shot was fully worth it. I am not ruling out black magic to account for Martin’s charisma, but it probably has more to do with how passionate and earnest he is about the music.

Frankly, while their album is a good listen, Youngblood Hawke is the kind of band you go see live. They’ve got fantastic energy and charisma, the audience was clearly having a blast singing along with them, and there was dancing constantly going on both onstage and off. Youngblood Hawke is that special and somewhat rare balance of style and substance that intrigues and delights in equal measure.