Youngr - This Is Not An Album

Youngr
This Is Not An Album
2018
Spotify

I've known about multi-instrumentalist Youngr ever since He released a video of him covering "Sweet Disposition" at some daybreak rave in the UK. It's him standing on stage surrounded by drums, electronics and guitars all of which He plays alone with this very distinct funky beat. Next came "Out of My System" one of his first originals and even there He is able to maintain his bouncey style. He's good, He's fun and something different than we are used to. Live his setup is similar to Robert DeLong, but not as aggressively electrofied. The song that set it all in motion "Sweet Disposition" finds it's way on to this debut record This Is Not An Album but doesn't have quite the same pop it had in the live version. That seems to be the theme with Youngr as time goes on and He gets bigger and bigger, He starts to loose some of the stuff that made him so interesting in the first place. I saw Youngr recently in LA and really hyped him up to my friends. I was prepared for an all nite dance party but instead it felt more like an Indie Rock show with his brother playing other instruments throughout the show. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, but it lacked that excitement of one man on stage doing it all. The idea however with Youngr's complex arrangements heavily weighted towards percussion would be almost impossible to do live all by yourself. Some of his writing is also a bit suspect. "'93" is the well worn territory of "weren't things better before twitter was invented?" which many artists like to talk about while still tweeting on the fucking daily. Nostalgia has it's place but when it's shoehorned into a song it just feels stupid.

His lyrics also feel a bit infantile rarely leaving the subject of growing up or trying to keep a party going. "What's Next" almost follows those guidelines exactly. "Monsters" is another example of a pretty great beat that the lyrics really wreck. Towards the end of the album you also begin to find each song sort of has the same structure, and then ends up sounding really similar. "September Sun" is a real bright spot on the album and harnesses the thing that makes Youngr great: this glitchy vocal, overlayed electronics but still plenty of analogue instruments. This is when He is at his absolute best, not trying to write a typical catchy pop song. Youngr has a shit ton of promise, but still has some kinks to work out before He finds his distinct voice. He'll get there though, just give him some time and there is no shortage of tracks to bang to on this record either.

6.9 out of 10