AWAL Recordings
February 10
Review by Lewd Scoff
Every now and again I accept the offer to review a band I’ve heard the name of heaps, but never
actually heard the band. You Me At Six is one of these bands, and Truth Decay is the album under
the microscope today.
The band’s eighth studio release sees the Englishmen deliver 13 tracks that wear their influences heavily
on their sleeves, whilst still providing that You Me At Six magic. When you listen to a band’s latest album then feel the urge to deep dive into their back catalogue that’s the sign of a good band in my humble opinion.
Whilst they are not breaking the mould when it comes to quality rock music, they are however part of the new wave of established rock bands that are helping push the genre back into the mainstream. Tight, realized melodies play over a modern production that is always loud and in your face, something the kids feel is a necessary factor when streaming music.
Moving away from the progressive-tinged flavour of 2021’s Suckapunch, the band affords a more natural drum sound on Truth Decay, and the songs can breathe more even though there’s more going on as a subsequence.
Opening track Deep Cuts is firmly based in the U.K with a backbeat reminiscent of The Artic Monkeys or Royal Blood. A four-to-the-floor slammer that only offers a sonic shoegaze in the song’s outro.
Mixed Emotions is a chorus lead song that has a ‘Wombats’ feel. You know it? That mid 2000s rock- pop feel that uses classic rock instrumentation to fuel disco influences coupled with easy core vibes. Why not go half-time in the drum part to help that chorus melody breathe in the middle 8? If it works, exploit it.
God Bless the 90s Kids is a Blink 182 throw back that sees single-line clean guitar parts bubble quite nicely as they transition into another big chorus that pays tribute to arguably the band’s biggest fan base. Tight, concise and to the point seems to be the order of the day on this album.
Time for some fast-paced minor key tomfoolery, and After Love in The After Hours delivers the goods with change to spare. I particularly like the musical transition between chorus and verse. The way it leads into the breakdown gives the outro substance and really shows off how dependable the band is on drummer Dan Flint and his solid tub-thumping.
There’s nothing quite like a techno-based keyboard sample, that’s been bit crushed so it fits comfortably within the sonic realm of alternative pop punk. Josh Franceschi has a wonderful voice that gets a chance to flex its range here. Especially in the fast-paced metal core middle eight. One of the highlights of the album, this establishes the band as the purveyors of modern rock that they are. Also the albums first blatant use of a drum machine in the outro.
HeartLESS brings the pace down and has that ‘everyone who plays this sort of music seems to think they need to have a song like this on the album’ kinda vibe about it. For those who rate lyrics above musicianship. For me, throw away, but probably needed so audiences have a section to go to the toilet or the bar when played live. Sorry, not sorry.
Someone in the band has an ex called Ellen Rae, and I don’t think she was the American kindergarten teacher who was gunned down in a school shooting, giving this song no context, however, musically, the simple C standard acoustic guitar in the intro definitely grabs the listeners attention before the lyrics do. Unfortunately, I can’t get past the fact that the chorus sounds like the first half of Panic At The Disco’s biggest hit. Bummer. The rest of the sound is big and dumb though. Nice. Who Needs Revenge When I’ve Got Ellen Rae works best with the highly frenetic drum outro.
Breakdown reminds us that anyone who plays Fortnite regularly will know that Rockstar by Da Baby is a popular emote, and this songs chorus sounds indirectly influenced by that track. Not that that’s a bad thing, but the two tracks do share a similar melodic phrasing over the same chord progression. The low-tuned snake-like riff that backs this track’s version of that melody eclipses the Da Baby song by roughly 800%. This is a really well-constructed song that will end up on contractually obligated greatest hits album that a band with longevity requires.
Traumatic Iconic reinforces the album’s overall feel with another You Me At Six by numbers track. The more you listen to these songs though, the more they stick with you. If you already love the band, you’ll either love this or have moved on. At two minutes and 47 seconds, it feels like the Soundcloud generation has either reached the band, or even they grew tired of their own tropes.
I’ll be honest, by track 10, the whole ordeal is actually starting to grate on me. MyDopamine is like tired Everclear and you start to see that You Me At Six have nothing to offer these days, except mad respect for their influences.
And there’s still three tracks to go. My god, this is a challenge. And I’ve heard this album from start to finish at least 10 times. Proof that when you’re working away and only half listening, some music is great, until you actually start to listen, and notice the reason you were enjoying it in the first place, is it sounds like music you’ve heard too much of, but are happy that its something new within those constraints.
A Smile To Make You Weak(er) At The Knees once again comes across as The Wombats without the boyish charm. Even with the spoken word couple of words to stop the song momentarily. You Me At Six are really good at what they do, they just need to do their own thing more. And really get over the two minute, 47 second song format. It’s all over before it began and no reason to extend as it’s all another band by numbers.
Thank goodness for Ultraviolence. Injecting some quality songwriting into the end of the album is what this collection of songs really needed to wake the listener up. Beautifully constructed, this is classic YMA6. I feel the band needs to forget their 90’s influences and get over other English based rock bands. Quality track.
Rounding out proceedings is A Love Letter To Those Who Are Lost and features the sultry vocals of Cody Frost, a winner of The Voice, a televised vocal competition that exploits the audience’s pathos and projects people with good voices into an industry that they are unprepared for and usually fizzle out after a year or so or when the hype dies down. Cody’s voice adds to this song, but for the most part it’s a mid-track that signals the end to an album that I will forget about within a week, except maybe the song Breakdown.
The first five times I heard this album I was rating it 10 out of 10, but then I really listened and that score has come down to 6 out of ten. Predictable but not unlistenable.
