You Me At Six – ‘Night People’ [Review]
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During the first week of each new year, we all start as we mean to go on. We make our resolutions, and do our best to stick to them. With consistent commercial gains behind them and a brand new album poised to punch listeners in the eardrums, it’s clear that You Me At Six have resolved to keep doing what they do best.
Kick ass, take names, and rock the fuck out.
Night People (the song) is strong, strident, and über-confident. Listen to it while you’re out and about, and you’ll find yourself walking like a badass. Combining a filthy blues attack with some of You Me At Six’s fattest grooves to date, it all adds up to one hell of an opener.
If your 2017 motivation needs a boost, give Night People a spin. It’ll sort you out. If you still need more, add in Plus One – a full-tilt rocker powered by a caffeinated 100-Pro-Plus pulse – and Heavy Soul, a four-minute dose of reined-in energy and open-eyed nostalgia.
If you’re currently on a comedown from the holiday party season, try Take On The World. It’s a poppy, mountainous anthem that showcases You Me At Six’s hard-earned dynamic mastery, ebbing and flowing without coming off weak-hearted. Beyond that, you have the soul-stirringly ruminative Brand New; the bouncy-confrontational Swear; Make Your Move’s combination of sharp, stuttering guitars and skyscraping choruses; and Can’t Hold Back’s seething lyricism.
This is the sound of a band flexing their muscles and spreading their wings, one minute firm and stoic, the next disarmingly vulnerable. Both stances are You Me At Six trademarks, present and correct as ever.
Although album closer Give maintains momentum until the very end, employing spicy layers, loud-soft shifts, and tasty guitar melodies in honourable service of The Song, penultimate track Spell It Out proved a personal overall highlight. From an intro laden with sinister piano, anxious clean guitars, and well-chosen words through a slow, moody build into a headbanging, Zeppelin-grade riff…fuck me. Try and sit still through that one.
If you can, you’re probably dead.
Overall, Night People is a set of profligacy-free songs sculpted of sonic granite. If dark pop-rock is your genre of choice, prepare to gain not just a new favourite You Me At Six album, but a new favourite album.
Full stop.
TMMP RATING: 100% (Essential Listening!)
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