Young the Giant - Home of the Strange

Young the Giant
Home of the Strange
2016
Spotify

The first Young the Giant record back in 2011 was much more a straight up indie rock record and the follow up in 2014 was much more synth heavy, almost sliding into the electropop territory. It is this issue with a sense of grounding that has plagued Young the Giant for sometime now. However on this new album Home of the Strange the band seemed to have found a unified voice that really works. The first song "Amerika" finds that great balance between rock and electronic and sets the tone for the rest of the record. They are able to get into a really nice groove on each one of these tracks really putting their rhythm to the test. "Elsewhere" has some Bowie inspired vocals and vibes and is the closet Young the Giant have ever comes to any kind of psychedelic sound. "Mr. Know-It-All" puts the beat straight on the floor and gets the album really moving in an interesting direction. Each point of that particular track feels almost like it's own little world, somehow coming together to paint a really cool picture. Young the Giant seemed to have two options with this record either go more pop and push for some top 40 radio play or dig a little deeper and figure out what was actually at the center of the bands soul, and clearly with this record they chose the later.

It's not all super polished however. "Jungle Youth" while an interesting rock song in a way sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of this record. It has a great alt-country groove but never really gets where it needs to go. "Titus Was Born" is another anthemic indie track that has two very distinct parts, the second of which is incredible synthpop, and the first part is who really knows what. It is that consistency with a sound that would help out Young the Giant so much. This record is their most focused, and seems the most like what they really are, but there are still those moments of "who the hell are we?" throughout Home of the Strange. It is just so close to being really great on so many levels that it gets a bit frustrating when they just miss the mark. What is clear however is that Young the Giant continue to get better each time they record a new album, and not just in the arbitrary they've been doing it longer way, but actually improving a lot record to record. If this trend continues the things coming from Young the Giant in the future could be really special, but only time will tell. For now we have this, a perfectly nice little record.

7.2 out of 10