Blitz Kids
The Good Youth
Reviewed by: Sebastian Mackay
It’s a touch amusing when the vocalist sings about being “contrived” and those are the exact words your thinking. “When I was born and raised all I wanted was to feel the pain” how quaint. It’s cute. Well, it’s not really. It’s more sad than inspiring and uplifting especially when the following chorus is about wanting everything. Take the pain with everything, because it’s going be a small part of an oh-so-wonderful-life.
The best part?
The record drops that attitude from the first beat of track two and we’re opened up to something else entirely. The gang vocals stay and so does the intensity of the music -but it’s wound up to 11 and there’s no stopping the happy go lucky feeling of these tracks. It’s reaches the beautiful, if not slightly perplexing, state of having down and out lyrics with enough music fight to make you forget what you were sad about.
“Keep Swinging” is a great change of pace musically for the album. By this point the record has come into step and you know exactly what Blitz Kids are doing and they’re doing it well. They’ve created a record that’s optimistic and finds beauty in all the negative places. Musically it encourages you to get on your feet while lyrically, with “Keep Swinging”, it’s about encouraging you to get up when life knocks you down – a concert anthem.
The following track “Long Road” is comes off as the most thoughtful and emotional on the album. It creates an interesting texture especially when it comes out it into “Sold My Soul.” If you can shake the teenage angst and want a song for the sake of good listening “Perfect” is your move. But as we’re always, always, reminded “perfect isn’t perfect”.
Overall: it’s an album that brings out enough high octane tracks to the negative inside out and destroy that awful mood. Go with this record, let it take you where it wants to. Because it is peppered with teenage angst but has it’s moments where it’ll cut to the heart.
Rating: Bad-Ass
