A self-titled album is a curious thing.
It’s normally accompanied by a statement along the lines of, ‘this is the truest reflection of the band to date’, or ‘the music should just be judged on its own merits’. In the case of debut albums it’s understandable, if only just to re-emphasise the name and cement it in the listener’s head. Similarly, the sophomore album may come with words loosely approximate to, ‘the first album was just us finding our way. THIS is our defining statement’. The further into a band’s career they get, the principle continues to apply, although it does cast their preceding albums in a bad light.
This is Lust For Youth’s fifth album and, while it would be a shame to cast aside the previous four, it seems to be where they have found the perfect blend they have been looking for. Their debut, 2011’s Solar Flare, was a doom-laden drone inflected affair, with the alienation of Kraftwerk and Ian Curtis the key touchstones. As the albums have gone by the band have lightened up, moving into more new wave synth akin to the Human League and Depeche Mode.
New Balance Point is immediately evocative of the 1980s, like the period episodes of Black Mirror. Listing a sequence of grudges (‘You never fail to disappoint’) and realisations during the death of a relationship, its despondency in musical tone matches the lyrics. Regretro-pop at its most mournful. Insignificant is a more upbeat affair with a disco beat that swells gradually before a final two minutes of glorious, industrial dramatic melancholy. If Slowdive covered Neu it would sound like this. Venus de Milo flirts with the scattered sound of Fischerspooner with added balearia but sadly doesn’t fulfill its initial promise. It promises to explode but opts to fizz along.
Great Concerns opens with the same unsettling synths as The Vaccines’ All In White and then becomes a Killers remix, which distracts slightly from the lyrical content concerning the current ecological climate. Fifth Terrace benefits from female vocals which give it an ethereal and reflective quality, befitting the slower pace. Adrift is the most out-and-out pop song, once again echoing the pure melodrama of The Killers, a tale of lost love and small town romance combining with the melody which is Springsteen-esque (and therefore sounding even more like Las Vegas’ finest). Like Insignificant, it goes off on a house-beat tangent which doesn’t really reflect what has gone before, but certainly makes it more appetising for the ears.
Imola is strangely placed, an ambient pause for breath despite being the penultimate song. Featuring Romanian spoken word narration covering racing driver Ayrton Senna, it’s immersive but would have been more effective two tracks earlier. As it is, it serves as precursor to closer By No Means which could be a Pet Shop Boys offcut. Fitting, as that is surely what Lust For Youth are aiming for.
Not a sunshine album, but perfect accompaniment to the ongoing apocalypse that is summer 2019.
