Young Fathers — Heavy heavy — Album Review
Alternative | Soul | Indie | Rock
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
The Edinburgh-based alternative rock group known as Young Fathers are a band that I had discovered through my very first ever “last minute reviews week”. To elaborate, 2018 was the first year that I decided, towards the very end of it, that it would be worth going over a few more albums before it came to a close. This year also happened to be the one in which the band’s third album Cocoa Sugar arrived. And on top of being a well-needed discovery of Young Fathers, and a great album in is own right, it also served as the most recent project that the band had put out, until the arrival of 2022.
With all of that in mind, it is certainly air to say that Heavy Heavy was a highly anticipated album; not only due to the fact that it would stand as the band’s first album release in five years, but also the fact that it is most definitely one of the first “big” albums of the year. And what I mean by that, exactly, is that hopefully, this album serves as the beginning of the year finally being a bit more impactful musically.
And impactful this album definitely was. While I did manage to catch the release of the teaser track “I Saw”, I still had what I would call a pretty blank canvas, regarding my thoughts on how the album would sound. That is always an exciting prospect. However, even if I had listened to all of the teaser tracks released in the lead-up to the album, I don’t think I would’ve expected such a unique sound from the band.
I remember hearing little inklings on it from the likes of Cocoa Sugar, but Heavy Heavy really develops upon the best parts of the previous album’s aesthetic. And what that results in is an album that is incredibly fun to listen to.
To elaborate on this aesthetic a bit further, what Young Fathers have done on this album is fuse a traditional and festive feeling of soul (which, might I add, is absolutely perfect for the approaching spring) with a truly quirky and upbeat energy. What these two elements add up to is an album that has both an impactful sense of memorability, and a highly enjoyable energy (a true match made in heaven, when you consider good qualities an album can have).
There is a true sense of importance that this album has. And in other words, that essentially means I can totally realise just how and why Heavy Heavy is getting the positive reception that it so thoroughly desrves.
Given how long it’s been since the release of Cocoa Sugar, as well as the fact that I technically didn’t listen to that former album upon its actual release date, this feels more like a re-discovery of, and a re-introduction to Young Fathers. And I can safely say it was well worth the wait.
Favourite Tracks: Rice | Drum | Geronimo | Sink Or Swim
Least Favourite Track: Shoot Me Down
Ninja Tune
