On Angel in Realtime, Gang of Youths wear too much heart on their sleeves

Over the course of their decade-long career so far, the band has topped the Australian ARIA charts twice with a headstrong sound that can fit in at both stadiums and indie venues.

Ostensibly a tribute to frontman Dave Le’aupepe’s late father Teleso ‘Tattersall’ Le'aupepe (“He was my best mate in the whole world,” Le’aupepe has said previously), Angel in Realtime is conceptually informed by the woe of Tattersall’s passing. The lyrics are basically literal and the group’s approach to rock comes off as orchestral. It is impossible to listen to without envisioning Le’aupepe belting out its words on stage, gripping a mic stand with one hand and making large, preacher-like gestures with the other.

Each track is painted with this same weighty hue. Sometimes they tell Tattersall’s origin story (“Brothers”), while elsewhere they recall feelings and memories of him–both nostalgic (“You in Everything”) and unpleasant (“Forbearance”). Even songs where Tattersall is less present like “The Angel of 8th Ave” feel like they are desperately longing for something.

Sonically, the album is a tight mixed assortment of arena-ready styles that Gang of Youths, to their credit, melds into a coherent sound. For all the genres the band plays with, no song feels out of place. “The Kingdom is Within You” blends UK garage drums with soaring, poppy strings, whereas “In the Wake of Your Leave” plays like a driving U2 number and “Tend the Garden” like a funky mid-tempo Avalanches remix.

But while the album might be spray coated with a smooth sheen, its shine is too forced. Though opening track “You in Everything” kicks the record off to a promising start and “Tend the Garden” provides listeners with an intriguing change of pace, far too many spots on Angel in Realtime are bland, generic, and overly sentimental. “In the Wake of Your Leave” is supposed to rock, but doesn’t, “Forbearance” brings to mind the most unimaginatively uplifting EDM tunes, and “Spirit Boy” is a power ballad encroaching on Imagine Dragons territory.

On its surface, Angel in Realtime has some enjoyable qualities. It is paced well and filled with enough ideas that it remains engaging, and Le’aupepe’s earnestness is admirable in small doses. Small doses, however, is not what Gang of Youths is about. They are all in your face, all the time. There are almost no lyrics that make you laugh, and even fewer that make you feel dirty. Even the album’s most understated moments like the piano-and-vocal ballad “Brothers” come off basic and moralizing with lines of saccharine fluff like “Our father's love was unmistakable / And he gave us еverything he had” delivered forcibly intimate.

Angel in Realtime tackles a heavy theme–a beloved father’s life–in such an incessantly emotional way that its moments dealing with the man’s contradictions (it is revealed that Tattersall had a family in New Zealand he abandoned and never spoke of) sound accidentally hagiographic. Unfortunately, Le’aupepe & Co. just never let loose.