Review
The Young Leaves
Alive And Well

Baldy Longhair (2013) — Scott Wilkinson

The Young Leaves – Alive And Well cover artwork
The Young Leaves – Alive And Well — Baldy Longhair, 2013

After a successful gig at Fest 12 last month the Massachusetts based power trio The Young Leaves will hit the road to support their third release Alive and Well. With this release the band shows its here for the duration and also shows growth in their songwriting, musically the band is sounding louder and better than ever. A three piece Post-Punk band that comes off sounding like someone took the best parts of Dinosaur Jr., Weezer, Husker Du, and The Ramones, mixed it up thoroughly and then threw in the some revved up Elvis Costello style vocals to keep it interesting. The band consists of Chris on vocals/guitar, Lindsey laying down the fierce bass lines and Rico completing the attack on percussion.

Their brand of fuzz infused indie rock is showcased in the album opener "Drowning Pool" a fast moving assault that grabs you from the first notes and makes you want to jump into the mosh pit. In the second song the band sings of the torment and sorrow of love missing the mark in "I'd Rather Be Hurt" with the pain rationalizing chorus "I know you didn't mean to hurt me so bad".

"Alive and Well" and "Say Suntin" both feature some nice grungy fuzz, both of these songs have a real Lemonheads vibe going on throughout and shows how the band embraces 80's and 90's power pop and how it influenced the evolution of their sound. This leads into the song "There Was a Ghost Inside of Me" which has a great sounding Weezer influenced guitar crunch as the chorus affirms "You will be with me eventually". The songs "Hammered", "Holliston", "That One Tree" and "In The Morning" deliver the goods and help define the band's sound. The song "Bruno" is another standout track that demonstrates the bands diversity, not a straight ahead rocker but rather a display of sonic dexterity with levels of distortion and feedback layered over a repeating guitar track. Overall a great album while this is a band that is influenced by some of the greats, they don't imitate their heroes they take it to another level, highly recommended that you catch their live show as well.

The Young Leaves – Alive And Well cover artwork
The Young Leaves – Alive And Well — Baldy Longhair, 2013

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