Set To Impress
Young Widows avoid scar tissue with their sophomore album Old Wounds.
Young Widows
Old Wounds
Released on Sep 09, 2008
Three years after the release of their first album, Settle Down City, Young Widows are back with vigor, and an album to showcase it. Always the adventurous type, Young Widows recorded the their latest album while on tour. Literally. With the help of producer and ex-Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, the band managed to engineer a precise and ear-catching live album of sorts. With the band feeling most at ease playing live shows, Ballou joined them on tour to record all of their live shows, as well as several sets in various studios along the way. After it was all said and done, and more than likely recorded, the band faced the tedious task of choosing only the most prized takes of their best songs out of the dozens of hours of live recording. What resulted was an inspiring new take on the live album, featuring all of the energy and none of the flaws.
While I was originally a little disappointed with the overall style of some of the new songs, the live energy radiating from this album gave me a real appreciation for Old Wounds. Starting with “Take A Turn,” Young Widows deliver non-stop bliss and fury. “The Guitar” which comes up a few tracks into the album stops everything dramatically. With its slow tempo, repetition and overall lack of stimulation, I felt it only ruined the streak they had going.
Fortunately, “Lucky And Hardheaded” succeeded in bringing everything back to speed. Vocal strength and lyricism obviously not the focal point of the band, they manage to mask their weaknesses with powerful, driven music. The effects ridden guitar covered up the absence of intelligible lyrics - which probably worked in their favor.
One track that stood out to me was “Delay Your Pressure.” Packaged with this song was all the gusto and experimentalism that Young Widows is known for. With especially strong guitar and drums in this track it’s easy to imagine being in the midst of a real live set. “Swamped and Agitated,” wraps things up nicely. With its use of chants an uninhibited rawness.
While Young Widows tried their damnedest to capture the essence of their live show on this album, it seems to me something managed to slip between their fingers. While still a fine and dandy album as it may be, I can’t help but to feel let down when Old Wounds is stacked up against its predecessor Settle Down City.
High Point
Evan Patterson’s entire performance of “Delay Your Pressure.”
Low Point
The hours it felt like it took to listen to all of “The Guitar.” Please give me a little bit of variation on rhythm next time.
Posted by Andrew Scott on Sep 16, 2008 @ 12:00 am