Young British Artists

"Change By Another Name"

Release date: 21 July 2014

7.5/10

Young British Artists Change By Another Name

16 July 2014, 11:30 | Written by Sam Willis

(Albums)

(Young British Artists)

As the allure and glamour of clean cut, auto-tuned pop mainstream tightens its grip on the vast majority of listeners, the subversive act, championed by the loud voices of those who inhabit the opposite side of music’s terrain, has seemingly become to warp and drown straightforward listening. Increasingly since the late 80s and 90s, inspired by 70s punk, alternative bands have leaned towards the crackle and fuzz of home recording, meaning to counteract the pre-watershed sweetness of pop (not so pre-watershed since Miley Cyrus ditched Mini Mouse for miniskirts and jelly beans for ecstasy). Young British Artists’ debut Change By Any Other Name sees the band explore the limitations of home recording, allowing them to capture the raw energy of their famed live set.

Seemingly named after the loose faction of British painters and artists who made their fame in the modern art galleries of the late 80s, Young British Artists are a band who use the veil of fuzzed, lo-fi production to wrap together songs of youth, failed aspirations and the passing of time. Change By Any Other Name is the highly anticipated amalgamation of their development; delivering their angst with anthemic vigour and their musings on the sure and straight arrow of time with incinerating conviction. The record comes to being with vast walls of sound, stabbing guitars and washed soundscapes; throughout nods to shoegaze stalwarts My Bloody Valentine are evident, but gloom and noise are met equally with the band’s aptitude for hooks and a pop sensibility.

“New Language” opens the LP with feedback screeches and a great tidal wave of fuzz which sinks into trundling guitar lines and Leo Scott’s doused vocal mumblings. It’s straightforward, enthralling, no frills rock n’ roll delivered with flabbergasting finesse for a debut. Strident thrashings are met in equal measure with a fragility, thoughtfulness and an aptitude for contagious song-writing. “Lived In Skin” creates one of the record’s starker highlights, encapsulating the overriding theme of youth and that dreadful feeling that you are beginning to lose it; not an easy pill to swallow. The newly appointed video for said track goes further to paint the picture, depicting an old man (one of YBAs with a Bad Grampa come Bo’ Selecta style wrinkled mask on) driving in a top down Cadillac with snippets of a past life living itself out in the back seat: birth, marriage, work, holidays and getting high.

The record pounds on in the same vein, with a brief ballad interlude which comes in the shape of “Capsule”, and throughout shimmering guitar rhythm is coupled with delicate lead lines; the ferocity of the bands instrumentation constantly shaded against an intangible air of gloom. There’s little new, ground breaking, or mind blowing here, but the band categorically succeed in creating an album that shrouds itself in DIY fuzz and sing-a-long sweetness in equal measure.