10th March - The Young Knives' Superabundance

Artist – Album: Young Knives – Superabundance

Released:  10^th March 2008         

Sounds Like: I should’ve put more effort into my Mother’s Day gift.

Happy Mother’s Day (UK)™! You may have sent your Mum a card and flowers, you may give her a call later on, you may have even been extravagant and taken her out for a meal or bought her an ipad (appearently people do that), but I’m sure my mother will be just as pleased to have been mentioned in the opening paragraph of my blog. Lucky, lucky lady. I’m such a good son.

I’ve even managed to find an album to write about that contains a song with the word ‘mummy’ in it. Admittedly, ‘Mummy Light the Fire’ is a strange choral song containing lyrics like “I feel fear, I’m in floods of tears” and hence not exactly full of Hallmark sentiment, but it’s the thought that counts eh?

The album as a whole isn’t exactly the sort of thing that my mom would love. The first half is full of angular chords and yelped vocals, the sort of music you associate with people that wear Ramones t-shirts and skinny corduroy jeans but have never actually heard of ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. It may be clever but it’s just too difficult to love. A bit like me. You begin to question whether the band wear the glasses for vision or fashion purposes... But then, starting with album highlight ‘Turn Tail’, the tone switches. The music becomes fuller and more diverse. The guitars are lightly strummed as much as aggressively stabbed. The lyrics, though depressed, become more humorous and ironic. The lead singer starts to look more like the affable David Mitchell than some pretentious hipster. More of the second half and less of the first and this would be a great album rather than just not bad.

Albumaday... rating: 6/10

1.       Fit 4 U – 3:16

2.       Terra Firma – 2:48

3.       Up All Night – 2:58

4.       Counters – 4:11

5.       Light Switch – 3:47

6.       Turn Tail – 4:44

7.       I Can Hardly See Them – 3:07

8.       Dyed in the Wool – 3:10

9.       Rue the Days – 3:46

10.   Flies – 1:39

11.   Mummy Light the Fire – 4:04

12.   Current of the River – 5:24

Listen to ‘Turn Tail’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yrlgg8Lzi0