Young Knives

‘Superabundance’

(Transgressive)

“Don’t follow the signs – they are misguiding…”

Whatever the signs might have been for Young Knives following debut album ‘Voices Of Animals And Men’, the band have taken a complete volte-face on the direction they seemed to be heading, and the resulting follow-up blasts any preconceptions right the fuck out of the water. Young Knives have ditched the truncated guitar-flex histrionics so favoured, and perpetuated to death, by The Futureheads, Maxïmo Park et al, and have gone – dare we say it – a bit pop. More fleshed out and deliberate, ‘Superabundance’ is a studied piece of genius that embraces the eccentric bent which made the Knives so sharp in the first place. Though like any self-respecting madmen, nothing about them is predictable. ‘Fit 4 U’ twats us straight in the chops from the off, delivering bass-driven funk-pop that sounds weirdly like Young Knives at their most natural, even though, from what we’ve already heard, it’s the last thing we’re expecting. Single ‘Terra Firma’ keeps the double-take neck-strain a-coming with some Blondie-meets-Archie Bronson psychedelia-rock action. Highlighted by ‘Turn Tail’ – a surge of bass and violin massiveness – and ‘Dyed In The Wool’ – harmonic pop perfection the like of which Kaiser Chiefs have been trying to write all their miserable careers – ‘Superabundance’ doesn’t follow any path or any fucker, but rather places fresh markers pointing down a road superabundant with originality and renewed promise.

Stephen Brolan