I’ve been fans of this lot for quite a while, and this is their debut album, a record I’ve been looking forward to for ages. Unfortunately, as something of a ‘greatest hits’ compiled from all their previous self-released material there’s nothing on here I haven’t heard before, which is a shame for those of us who have kept a very close eye on their progress up to this point. For all the rest of you however, this is twelve tracks of splendid indie gorgeousness from the first signings to the new label End of the Road Records.

Comparisons are often made to Belle & Sebastian, but with the exception of a couple of tracks, I don’t really buy this. For the most part they are too country for this comparison to hold, although tracks like the superb Girl From the Northern States could easily have issued from the pen of Stuart Murdoch. I saw them play a couple of tracks from Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue at the End of the Road Festival, and that kind of heavily instrumental clatter-along rock ‘n’ roll fits their sound very neatly. The band have obsessions with The Beatles, classic rock and classical, which might give you an idea what to expect.

This album is surprisingly coherent actually, for one that veers all over the place stylistically. There’s some pastoral indie-pop, full-on rock ‘n’ roll, a little bit of rag time and some pure country in amongst the various styles in this record. All eight of the band studied music, and this interest in any and all styles shows through in the music they themselves produce, which is unrestrained by any one category. Nonetheless it all holds very well together. They have put a lot of work into their orchestration, making sure that all eight instruments aren’t fighting one another for attention, with the lovely She’s Not Waiting Here This Time testament to this hard work. It starts out all sparse and lovely, with no more than a little dash of piano and guitar underpinned with a little brush work on the drums. Half way through however, a drum roll heralds the arrival of a choir of angels and swelling cinematic orchestration. It’s superb, and this kind of surprising and unselfconscious genre-hopping is what is best about this album.

I’ve a really interesting interview with Chris & Julian from the Young Republic which I’ll be writing up in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, have a go at this or buy one of their singles from Rough Trade.

The Young Republic – She’s Not Waiting Here This Time
The Young Republic – Goodbye Town

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