There’s unrestrained power coursing by ‘Heavy Heavy’, the fourth album from Scottish trio Younger Fathers. The quite a few types that fill their sonic smorgasbord – soul, pop, rock, hip-hop, noise – match collectively neatly right here just like the items of a puzzle; the band by no means as soon as sounding disjointed when one sound offers approach to the following, typically throughout the similar monitor. In an identical vein to their earlier materials, the listener is shortly swept alongside on the Mercury Prize-winning band’s newest darkish and dense pop journey that achieves what many artists in the end aspire to: creating after which honing a sound solely of their very own making.
Ambiguous lyrics comparable to “fill these boots to really feel my soul and say, ‘Purchase extra medicine to really feel that love once more’ / Kill them sluggish, they reap I sow, amen” fill the file’s frenetic opener ‘Rice’, and in reality seek advice from the goldminers who’re destroying pure assets in Africa and the people who find themselves pressured into this type of labour. It’s a mark of the band’s sturdy songwriting nous that such politicised lyrics are subtly imbued throughout a mission that also manages to be equal elements anthemic and infectious.
Dizzying songs like ‘I Noticed’, which options skittish drums and heavy bass, flip traces so simple as “brush your tooth, wash your face, run away” into hypnotising mantras, whereas pleading chants of “please” on the attractive, reverb-soaked ‘Geronimo’ are stretched till it appears like a caught vinyl skipping.
The pacing of this 10-track file brings a welcome sense of cohesion. ‘Inform Any individual’, an initially softer and melancholic monitor, is deftly positioned between the fiery ‘Drum’ and the aforementioned ‘Geronimo’. Then there’s the pensive ‘Ululation’ – a surreal track in its personal proper that progressively ascends in direction of euphoric heights – which serves as a essential palate cleanser amid the pop-punk-rap hybrid the band have made their very own since their 2011 mixtape debut ‘Tape One’.
‘Heavy Heavy’ is a passionate, soulful and infrequently mesmerising work that can stick round gone the primary pay attention. Succinct and underpinned by a catchy melodic construction, it continues Younger Fathers’ peerless run of singular albums and additional cements them as one of many extra distinctive acts to exist in the present day. As epitomised by the euphoria they evoke with the chord and tempo shifts heard on the album’s nearer ‘Be Your Girl’, there merely is nobody else like Younger Fathers.
Particulars
Launch date: February 3
File label: Ninja Tune
