Review
Young Statues
Self Titled

Young Statues are a newly formed, Philadelphia indie rock band that arose from the coming together of long time friends. Their debut self-titled full-length is full of catchy riffs and appealing melodies and comes together to form a great overall “easy listening” feel. In short, your girlfriend will like this from the get-go and, if you give it a real chance, you will too.

I’ll be honest, this record did not really grip me upon a first listen, however this package of 11 songs eventually did get hold of me. This is a strong point of Young Statues: the songs have a catchy “single” feel that keeps the music in your head. However, this is also one of the albums biggest detractors, as the flow from song to song feels broken. The sound for each song is strikingly different; it moves from upbeat and catchy to slow and soft. This is fine if that’s what you’re into, however I am partial to a whole package. This could have arisen from the fact that this LP was formed as result of jam sessions between friends, making this completely understandable.

The songs themselves break down in to two categories: upbeat and fun then slow and moody. The stronger of the two are the more upbeat songs as they reach a good feel and do it better then the slower songs by comparison. “Spacism” is the opening track and gets things rolling to a very enjoyable pace. It is one of the strongest on the album it essentially epitomizes everything I like about this band: pretty melodies and catchy beats run rampant coming together to form something very enjoyable. Then the fifth track, “Losing a Friend,” has a lot that I don’t like about this band: cheesy, slow and moody. Once again, put into contrast the two are very different and one easily stands above the others.

Young Statues is a great album and shines in short bursts. While it may lose its nice easy-listening indie rock feel on a full play-through, it does just enough right and not enough wrong to stay out of mediocrity, but only just. If you give this record a chance it will grow on you and these songs may come a pleasant surprise.