Gang of Youths

One Liner: Aussie indie rockers who are huge back home.

Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, Alternative rock
Home:  Sydney, Australia

Poster Position: 15
Day: Friday at 1:45
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  I feel like this music, generally pleasant indie rock, should be right up my alley.  But the first few listens weren't great - I've repeatedly batted aside random thoughts that I sure wish I could listen to something else.  But after a few more runs through the tunes, its growing on me.

For example, I like Pete Yorn.  And the most popular song on Spotify sounds very much like a Pete Yorn track.  Here is "Let Me Down Easy," which has 8.6 million streams.

Do you hear it?  Musicforthemorningafter era Pete Yorn?  I dig that Yorn album, but this song is just kinda OK.  Weird.  The tune is from the 2017 album Go Farther in Lightness, which is also overall pretty OK.  I hear The Strokes in here as well sometimes.  That album pulled Album of the Year from the ARIA (like the Aussie Grammys), as well as Best Group and Best Rock Album, in 2017.

I really like the tune "What Can I Do If the Fire Goes Out," a breakneck rocker that starts with a chord progression that sounds vaguely like classical music, some sort of Rachmaninoff memory playing out through tingling guitars.  I bet the drummer is exhausted after that tune is over...

The band's twitter is relatively entertaining, going off on people who dislike U2 and those who are disappointed in the new Arctic Monkeys (the latter of which might describe me after I go back and try it some more).  Funny that they defend U2, because their version of "Heroes" sounds very much like U2 taking on that tune.

The band met while all the original members were attending the same church in Sydney.  I wonder if any of this is Christian music? (Nope, found an interview where the lead singer mentions that, while he still appreciates the church in the broad sense, he sees the current "cultural Christianity" to be "embedded in hypocrisy and conservatism."  The lead singer, last name Le'aupepe (which makes me think of cartoon skunks), writes the songs and deals with some heavy shit on some of these tracks, including his own suicide attempts.

The most listened to track is from 2015's album The Positions, with 9.3 million streams.  This is "Magnolia."

Dude looks like an extra from Kahl Drogo's army.  Again, kind of like it - fun lyrics about preparing to do battle in traffic, mildly interesting tunes in the background, terrible dancing in the video.  That older album is not as good as the new one, which is the thing that has really grown on me over the course of the day.  There are some very good songs on Go Farther in Lightness.  I will also mention that many of these songs are overly long.  2015's The Positions has 3 songs over 7 minutes, 2 songs over 6 minutes, and nothing shorter than 4:09.  Those are long songs.  Go Father in Lightness is slightly better, but still has two longer than 7.

Interesting band.  I was fully prepared to not like them after a few streams, but they've won me over.