You Me At Six recently celebrated their tenth anniversary as a band. Their fourth album, Cavalier Youth, showcases an assurance of sound that only a group with longevity and experience can possess.
The opening track, ‘Too Young To Feel This Old’, is a tight and ridiculously well-produced song. It becomes apparent quite quickly that this release has little in common with the darker, heavier tone of their last album, Sinners Never Sleep. In fact, the whole LP, filled with beefier basslines and big choruses, is optimistic and sort of anthemic. They definitely wrote it with sold out arenas in mind.
Predictably, Josh Franceschi’s vocals are strong, but his range really shines during ‘Room To Breathe’ and ‘Love Me Like You Used To’. The singer gets down and dirty, growling out the lines “Brought up my self esteem just to suck it out of me” – lyrics that will no doubt have fans lamenting in their bedrooms and screaming along at shows.
The album is lifted to a new level by producer Neal Avron, whose skill and experience (Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park) brings a grandiose and polished sound to a record that occasionally runs the risk of falling flat. In particular ‘Carpe Diem’ and ‘Cold Night’ are fine, but are unmemorable in amongst the others.
While they might not be reinventing the wheel, You Me At Six are sticking to what they know – and it definitely works. A solid, easy listen that will please fans.
Listen to ‘Lived A Lie’ from Cavalier Youth here:
