In a time where we break the human condition and isolate, we need to know we aren’t alone in feeling the sting of negative emotions. The need for unity is something that’s needed now more than ever and with their rather solemn debut album ‘The Modern State’, UK based punk rock band
The Young Hearts seek to provide solidarity.
The Young Hearts’ original intention with ‘The Modern State’ was to release a smaller EP, however with full-time commitment to the band becoming more difficult for the four-piece, the change was made to release a full length album, which could serve as their final release. Hoping to leave nothing unsaid from their perspective, The Young Hearts have produced an album rich with dejection and heartache so many of us will relate to.
Opening track 'Wild & Reckless’ sounds epic in its production. While a slower song along the veins of a downbeat All-American Rejects tune, there are pockets of energy bursting from the seams with Aaron Jackson’s guitar work. Subtle moments of courage within the cyclical nature of human emotion puncture the song, supported by emphatic drums from Andrew Pepin.
Craig Lawrence’s lyrical talent that hits you where it hurts comes to shine in ‘London’, a homage to the phenomenon in feeling a release while walking through a city centre at night. With a muted guitar solo, it’s the tortured soul finding ‘peace in the storm of the London sky’ that is the focus. Woven in the fabric of London as well as this penchant The Young Hearts have for digging deeper into the human state of mind, such as the ‘burned our fear of the unknown’.
It isn’t just the altogether unknown which haunts this record. ‘Cold Nights’ with its slow and sad guitar intro ruminates on those times you spent with ‘windows down and the stereo up/ Desperate to feel alive/ To feel anything’, cruising through dark streets with friends, blasting your favourite songs. Times and feelings you may remember forever, with people whose names and faces are fading in your minds eye. There is something rather Green Day toned as Lawrence cries out ‘I can’t remember your name’.
Title track ‘The Modern State’ is a commentary on the societal pressure of having your shit
together by the time you’re 30. Where time passes you by as you stagnate in a situation because it is familiar but ‘it’s just not worth the misery’. This song is purposely sorrowful as it delves into the sensation we will all feel at one time or another as age catches up to us and we feel as if we need to have certain things by a certain time. House, marriage, kids, white picket fences all culminate, wondering ‘How long will it take to finally let go’ of the expectation that this is how life has to be in order to achieve happiness. A huge instrumental crashes into you with the weight of a tsunami which seeks to break down your walls and be the soundtrack to many a tear shed.
‘Hang my head on the romance of a youth I wasted away’, Lawrence comments on the nostalgia fuelled ‘Fool’s Gold’. Much like ‘Cold Nights’ The Young Hearts take us back to those care-free days that we now look back on with rose-tinted glasses. Those simpler times play in our minds to the soundtrack of a dreamy and cloudy closing instrumental. Guitar notes sailing off into the ether, fading out like the memories of times long gone.
The most haunting moment within ‘The Modern State’ comes with ‘Swim’. A punk rock ballad
about drowning in the depths of mental health, and taking that all important step of asking for
help. ‘It’s a little deeper than I would ever know’ sails on rippling guitars and pulsating drums.
Though it doesn’t stop there as ‘Swim’ becomes a thank you note to the person who ‘taught me how to swim’. A support system is crucial as it can be the only thing stopping us from drowning. With a beautifully tender piano section, The Young Hearts give thanks to those who are most important, our lifelines in times of need, those people who give us the courage to be able to carry on when we thought we couldn’t.
‘The Modern State’ is the auditory equivalent of constantly picking at the scab of a wound needing to heal; the emotion in this album is raw and powerful. Whilst this is not a collection of ‘go get ‘em tiger’ inspirational songs to pull you out of your own murky waters, it’s a more subtle lifeline of ‘just keep treading water, you’ll get there’. Sometimes, that’s all the unification we need.
‘The Modern State’ is available now across all streaming platforms and available for physical
purchase from band’s merch store. For the latest news from The Young Hearts including whether or not there will be any further releases, click here or follow their social medias linked below.
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