Yungblud, the underrated youth - EP review
There's a lot to like about Yungblud.
He's original, yes. His look is so uniquely him and he dabbles with various forms of face paint and make-up around that beaming smile of his so that you can't help but feel sucked in by his energy and personality.
He can throw out some tunes too. His early single this year, Loner, with those Kasabian-esque dance vibes, was an absolute banger.
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And being from Yorkshire, there's something smirkish about the way he channels the vocal style of Arctic Monkeys lothario Alex Turner throughout braindead! once the machine-gun intro has opened up into this raunchy and percussion-heavy romp through his mind.
But once this track his dissipated, there is something so generic about a lot of the material which belies the in-your-face swagger and creativity of the artist, real name Dominic Harrison.
The poppy parents with its happy-go-lucky versus is a little tame for him, although that deep and reverberating bass that kicks in for the chorus does grab the attention. The music suddenly becomes danger-filled and like a warning siren.
He even goes for an acoustic ballad for closing track waiting on the weekend where his echoed vocal delivery shows a more intimate side to his thoughts and feelings and another string to his songwriting bow.
Not that he needs many more. We already know Yungblud is a dab hand with guitar, bass, piano and drums. And his electronic wizardry has been slapped in your face through the harsh and epic streams of 11 Minutes, released earlier this year with Blink 182's Travis Barker and Halsey.
So the emo tendencies of hope for the underrated youth again feel a little soft compared to his other work. It features one of those huge sing-along and hopeful choruses the pop-punk genre specialises in and will undoubtedly please fans of his in his upcoming live tour.
Atmospherics are also built throughout sabotage, but again it just feels like it never really gets going from start to finish and feels bland as a result.
But there is a real bright spark in original me, featuring one of his heroes Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons. Here, the stomping beats, shouty background vocals and funky beats make for a genre-bending romp like Yungblud is known for.
A real mixed bag this, and hopefully some experimentations that remain just that.
Rating: 5/10
Yungblud will be performing at Birmingham's O2 Institute on November 22, and the next day will be at the new hmv Vault, in Dale End, at 3pm meeting fans and signing copies of the EP
