Written by Tom Bedding
To see that You Me At Six are on their seventh album, I am left to wonder....what have they been doing through that time? The Surrey band do have a strong following, offering some accessible rock music to young millennials/older Gen Z peeps but their contribution to music as a whole though? Well, I have never felt they are an outfit you play to show off where UK Music is at.
So with their latest release, we are given some experimentation by the band and oh my is it needed. Those attempts of something different leave this album to be something worth talking about, nevertheless I am not fully convinced that this band should be headlining festivals and deserve some strong acclaim after all these years, there is still something missing with them.
We begin with a really cool and infectious opening guitar, it’s an intriguing opening moment by the band, something I was not expecting to hear straight off the bat. Overall though, ‘Nice To Me’ is strong and starts everything off nicely but the nods to the song ‘Mountain At My Gates’ by Foals leaves you wanting to listen to the Oxford band more than this album.
Then the mixed bag of a single called ‘MAKEMEFEELALIVE’ enters. There is a really cool garage element to it, though the mix on this is really its downfall. The chorus doesn’t hit as hard as it should do due to the vocals being lost within the average guitar sounds, that annoyingly doesn’t match to the decent riff in the verses.
Later, we hear more of a classic sound by the band on ‘Beautiful Way’. It is defiantly built to be a crowd pleaser and the simple guitar riff, within the chorus, will make a lot of punters chant it during festival season. Despite it feeling safe unlike other songs on the LP, it is probably one of the stronger cuts and will win back die hard fans that may want this band to stick to their usual palle. Oh and again, the rhythm of it all feels like it is copied from another Foals song, the iconic ‘Two Steps, Twice’….think they may like Yannis, but how can you not?
The R’n’B style of ‘WYDRN’ does in a way combine with their rock sound well, while the vocals by Josh Franceschi do flow very nicely over the beat and melody; you have to say it is a lovely turn of events this track. It will be interesting to see how their fans react over this and the following track but when the attempt of something is done well, how can you complain.
Then album title track follows and wow this dancehall intro, you know you are entering something interesting and different straight away. It builds up so well and and then leaves you hanging for the vocals to begin, which is eventually accompanied by a heavy beat but the melody of this is rather good. When the guitars and cries kick in, we return to more of the bands sound but the euro pop melody that comes in, does in fact feel rather catchy.
You Me At Six are sounding interesting with their slight exploration of styles but we have moments that do bring us back down to earth. The song name for, ‘Kill The Mood’, does sum up what it achieves….it feels moody and chilled but it is heavily lazy in every way possible. The synths sound awful and uninteresting, while the vocals are painfully boring and it really sounds like the band don’t want to be doing this at all.
Thankfully, we are given something with a bit more inspiration with ‘Glasgow’, with it also possibly being one of the highlights on the record. The mix on the vocals are heartbreaking and extremely impactful, it hits like you an emotional wave. However I feel like this could be side B to Foals’ single, ‘Sunday’….it is getting painful how Im just hearing the same influence within the melodies!? Though it is a decent song, it captures an emotion well and the calmer tone of it, is a much needed moment on the record.
This single Adrenaline’, feels a tad too accessible, playing on a repeated style that just leaves the interesting rhythm guitar hanging all by itself. The lyrics roll along in a boring and unsurprising way, there is just no flavour here. Next is ‘Voicenotes', where the modern topic of being impacted by someones use of voice notes is a bit jarring, it doesn’t hold enough sentiment that they were hoping. However the drums have a great hit to them and the guitar playing is powerfully gentle in the pre chorus.
‘Finish What I Started’ comes along and really surprises you, the melody is mightily strong and interesting, while the passion in the playing is great to hear. You can hear some Bastille within it all but the less heavy nature in its overall delivery, lets the musicianship shine nicely and is a pleasant moment on the record.
Sadly we are painfully waved goodbye with the closer that is ‘What’s It Like’. The guitar line is catchy, don’t get me wrong, however we are left with some cliche vocals and the beat is dire, leaving this promising record on a meh vibe. The verses makes you tut your head as it feels so obvious and the drop of the chorus, wow…..how predictable. It is a shame that ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ is not a whole record of extermination as it least would of been engaging all the through.
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