Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3/5 Released: April 24, 2007 Reviewer: David Coats |
The latest signing to Canada’s most esteemed indie label is Young Galaxy, essentially a two-piece featuring Catherine McCandless and Stephen Ramsay, whose proverbial foot in the Arts & Crafts door came through being a touring guitarist for label-mates Stars. However, YG bears little resemblance to other Arts & Crafts bands.
Communal single ‘Swing Your Heartache’ is the only real ‘play it loud’ song, and listeners will immediately notice the band’s lyrical style, relying on earnest explorative imagery, substantial without being pretentious, challenging without being clichéd (also especially prevalent on the excellent ‘Lazy Religion’).
‘Swing Your Heartache’ is indicative of the rest of the record in its indie-rock ambience, which can be beautiful (such as the ballad ‘Embers’), but some songs simply aren’t that memorable without the traditional Stars creativity or Broken Social Scene frenzy. In fact, the whole record sounds like the cover artwork looks – a mountain lake at sunrise viewed through eyes that haven’t yet adjusted to the intensity of daylight.
Ramsay is merely an adequate vocalist; McCandless, with traces of punk in her voice, is the better singer, which in conjunction with some dynamic percussion, gives ‘Outside the City’ a sense of urgency. Ultimately, this is not a record of individual songs so much as it’s one sonic experience to immerse yourself in, with some moments so delicate you’ll lose yourself in them as they evaporate. ‘Come And See’ is the most aggressive track, but its anthemic chorus still sounds the same sonically, just more expansive.
Young Galaxy’s debut record proves they have considerable potential as songwriters, as they can handle themselves lyrically, conceptually (just check out some of the song titles), and atmospherically – it’s also probably good that they are carving out a niche largely unexplored by their peers – but they would benefit from more risks, less passivity, and rawer instrumentation/production.
Buy Young Galaxy from iTunes >> 
