*REVIEW* Young Animal You Yang

7/10

Within the continuation of this blog, I will be occasionally picking a random album I have no idea about. This is one of those. 

Doing a bit of background research, I found out that Lost Animal comprises of Jarred Quarrell and Shags Chamberlain. They have one other full length release 2011's Ex Tropical. They are signed to the Dot Dash Recordings, a subsidiary of Remote Control and Inertia Records which has been in existence for a little over ten years now. 

So with this scant amount of information, I proceeded to start listening to this record. 

The most obvious thing about the music that Lost Animal produces, is it doesn't jump out of the box at you. From the opener "Leave It On the Street" we get a pretty good idea of the sound of the track-list and lyrical themes that will permeate You Yang. 

Starting with some programmed beats and the sedated sound of Jarred Quarrell's vocals, I can equate to the sound of a contemporary Nick Cave on tons of valium or a slightly less talented Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs. It's a very slow drawly type of croon. If you have trouble enjoying this sound, then the entire thing is filled with this vocal style.

The first 3 or 4 tracks of the album start off very sluggishly. They don't tend to veer away from the sound represented in the opener. But as the album progresses, the arrangements get better, it starts to open up and sound more adventurous, it sort forms a foil to Quarrell's vocals, which they may have identified as being too monotonous with too few accompaniments. 

"Do The Yerk", basically represents the most accessible track on the album, and probably is the reason it was chosen for the lead single. The stomping beat is the only thing on this (with the exception of possibly Message of The Future and Too Late To Die Young) to feature anything remotely seen as mid tempo.

The lyrical content basically deals with relationships, the fear of losing a loved one, the feeling of emotional entrapment. It feels like these themes are in every single track, with the background melodies and instrumentation slightly changed. A dossier of broken dreams. 

The staggering "Cross The Water" provides an interesting tense account of what seems to be a predatory man coaxing a certain someone somewhere. It's not quite clear who this person is, but the pitched down vocals used as an overlay tell you this is a guy you don't want to mess with. 

The closer "New Years Day" I felt was the strongest track on You Yang. The serene and melancholic acoustic guitars and woozy background synths. You can listen through this quite easily, it feels like the internal struggle between treading water and looking optimistically forward. Do you revel in past loves, waiting for them to return, or do you look forward to new ones. It's so unsure of itself. Maybe that's the entire point of this record. 

This music is extremely laconic, it won't change the world but it's an engaging set of songs that you can sink into. For fans of The War On Drugs and other like artists, definitely check this out.