New Young Republic Stuff
The Young Republic have been pretty quiet since the release of their debut album a couple of years ago. That record was less of a coherent whole and more of a greatest hits collated from several years of self-recording, so it’s actually a miracle it hung together as well as it did, frankly.
In the intervening period the band have lost three members, released an EP and fairly comprehensively changed their sound. It’s not been a smooth process, honestly. They had already begun to drift away from the whimsical indie-pop which dominated their early sound before the departure, for a variety of reasons, of their flautist, drummer and pianist. Since then they have continued to move further towards more of a classic rock sound, a sound dominated, for ease of explanation, by Bob Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Revue.
The disruption in the band itself caused a fair bit of turmoil, because it wasn’t entirely amicable, and come the release of last year’s Idiot Grin, there was a definite sense of uncertainty about the band. The new lineup seemed to have slightly unsettled them and the EP itself, despite containing some really good bits, was a little bit hit and miss – basically they were a band in flux and it came across very clearly in their work.
This is a year on, and that all seems to have changed. I’ve been listening to the new album and although I can’t review it yet (not until it’s released is the guideline I generally follow) I can confirm that after casting around just a little, they seem to have found where they were going. I’m not, as I said, going to get into a review of the whole thing, but there’s a real coherence about it as a piece of work which I really welcome.
So, in short, it looks like this could be a really good year for the band which, given I like them all a lot as people as well as musicians, is something I think is really good news.
The Young Republic – Black Duck Blues
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You know – I’m still listening to Twelve Tales From Winter City a couple of times a week.
I can’t think of much I’ve ever heard – ever – that I like more than that album. Seriously.
It’s an astonishing work, and represantative of a unique opportunity and moment in time for the band. It’s unlikely they’ll have the complete resources of one of America’s leading music colleges at their disposal in order to record a rock n’ roll album again.
I’ve picked up hints of their new direction in the bits and pieces I’ve heard since Twelve Tales.., and to be honest I’ve liked some things more than others.
Shiloh, for example, is a truly wonderful song; but the rest of Idiot Grin hasn’t really blown my skirt up.
I hope they’ve nailed their new sound and that the existing members have crystalised around the new line-up, because this band really do have massive potential.
Shiloh was the highlight of Idiot Grin for me as well.
In terms of the new one, it’s sounding good, to be honest with you. I can’t share yet, as you know, but you can come round the house for a beer or two and listen if you like. Fair compromise? Julian’s quite keen on it being heard really loud on a decent system, with a pair of good speakers. Talk about a red rag to a bull!
I’m declaring early as a fan of virtually everything they’ve released, I’ve heard about half of the new songs and despite loving Twelve Tales I think its a good step forwards.
Any idea when the albums going to be released Matthew?
There is talk of a second album this year too, now that would put even ‘work shy’ Alex Turner to shame. The new websites got bunch of cover versions on too.
There you go..value add for a change rather than usual tosh
A great band? Loud speakers? Beer? A selection of artisan cheeses, freshly baked bread and exotic fruits?
When’s a good time for you?
As long as no-one makes me drink genever again.
“makes me”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cogstar – there’s still some debate about that, so at the moment no-one knows, I don’t think.
I liked Twelve Tales…, but for some reason I never quite loved it. Now these two tunes you’ve posted sound great, especially The Wolf. The guitar playing is really excellent, reminds me of Richard Lloyd or Robert Quine. And the then the fiddle works itself right in there nicely.
I think they’re better now they’re working with less – it seems to galvanise the players left. No-one else is going to carry the song, so they have to. That may be nonsense, but it seems a bit like that at times.
Man, The Wolf rawks! I really like that tune.
As someone else who’s heard the new album, I can confirm that it’s sounding good to me. It’s definitely the classic rock sound though I also love the way that they’re using the violin. But I won’t go on…
This reminds me though to get something up on my blog about. I’ve been leaving it for too long…
I just hope that by stripping back their sound, they still continue to extend themselves as musicians and songwriters. I would hate to hear evidence of them beginning to coast.
The thing that I love about Twelve Tales.. is that these are clearly precociously talented and well-drilled young musicians pushing at their boundaries.
Most of the songs on Twelve Tales.. adhere to a fairly straightforward rock n’ roll structure, but the quality of musicianship on display is often breathtaking.
Just look at a couple of what I think are the weaker songs on the album. They’re still great little tracks, but not quite as drop-dead stunning as the others. There’s that bit in Modern Plays where they allow the structure of the song, the rhythm and the timing to all but collapse in on itself to the point of irritation, but just as you reach for the track-skip button they snap everything right back with a single strike each on the high-hat and snare, before the band comes in as absolutely water-tight as a drum. That’s not far off genius.
Listen to Chris’s bass part on She Comes And Goes – another throwaway track at first listen. Someone’s been up late listening to Mike Mills – and has come up with a melodic, imaginative and relentless bassline the REM legend himself would be proud of.
And what about Julian’s deliciously chilled out and blissfully languid jazz guitar solo on Goodbye Town? There’s simply no need for a 21-year-old to be able to play guitar like that. If Julian had said his granddad was a bit of a jazz legend, and rocked up to the studio one afternoon to lay down that particular track, then it would be more plausible. Talent beyond his years.
And that’s before we even get to the best songs on the album!
My point is that by becoming a ‘solid’ classic rock band – I hope they don’t lose all that class and character that came so naturally to them.
The Wolf is a class tune.
Suppose I better listen to it then…
i’m sick of new music (new to me anyway) it’s dangerous to the bank balance
Aye.. That’s not a bad tune actually, is it?
it’s really good.
It’s actually difficult to compare it with the best tracks off Twelve Tales.., because it’s such a departure.
It’s not as immediately disctinctive, but there might be enough of the band’s character remaining. Hmmm… Intriguing.
yadda yadda
You’d love this band Tom.
you sound like bart…..whne he trys to sell any band to my…..his hit rate isn;t that good
jesus….i think i just gave up trying to spell
Yeah? Well I’m one for one. Trust me on that!
I tend not to regard it as my “hit rate”, but more “everyone else’s fail rate”.
So you might say in the country of the deaf, the man with just a severe case of tinnitus shall be king.
I always wondered about that saying that goes “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.” or whatever it is.
I mean, isn’t it a bit of a waste to make the bloke with the one good eye a king? What with him just sitting around being waited on and having grapes peeled for him; and with nothing much of any importance to actually look at? Wouldn’t it make more sense to make him something more useful, like a lookout for example?
“‘Ere Larry, why don’t you go up on top of the mountain with your one good eye, take the telescope, and if you see anything coming give us a shout. The rest of us will just bimble about down here bumping into stuff.”
In the land of the Welsh, even Bart is funny.
(Zing!)
what was that?
oh…tumbleweed
And if one-eyed Larry gave the rest of them any gip about being made lookout – all the blind lads would beat him up! They’d hit him with their sticks and set their labradors on him, not make him a king.
Unless he didn’t tell the others, of course..
So the saying should be:
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man should really be the lookout or something useful, but if he doesn’t fancy that, he could be king as long as he’s a bit sneaky and doesn’t tell anyone about his one good eye.
Catchy that.
Hey Matthew – Usually when you write me an email it means you had the band on the brain… which means you wrote something about us… I would have read it anyways but checked just in case because I love to see my name in print. It’s pretty funny to hear ya’ll talk about 12 tales in such a loving way, especially about it having “skilled musicianship.” To Mr. Dylan, I assure you that the songwriting, arranging dwarf 12 Tales and our resources for this latest album – called Balletesque by the way – were infinitely greater than those do it yourselfs we did at Berklee. A proper string orchestra this time and a real studio, not to mention an engineer, a top notch mixer and world class masterer. It’s frankly flattering to read about your own band on a blog and subsequent comments since we are cloistered up in the studio every day of the week working on music and haven’t even gotten to play out but twice in the last 4 months and have no feedback about what we’ve been doing. It’s silly really, but it means a lot that you guys genuinely like the last album. This one though is a real piece of work, plus we’ll be recutting 12 Tales with the new lineup later this year. And I read we were working on another album this year? I think it’s 2. You guys are peaches.
a couple clarifications Mr. Dylan – Chris has no REM influence, I did not play on Goodbye Town save for some harmony vocals – that’s BOB, our jazz guy.
Oh and it’s not a classic rock album. It’s a music album
Hopefully see ya’ll later this year in the UK, land of rain, bad food and nice people
“Oh and it’s not a classic rock album. It’s a music album”
Touché!
But Americans don’t get to lecture anyone about food, I’m afraid -glass-houses and stones and so on.
I’ll be really interested to hear 12 Tales with the new lineup, that sounds like an amazing project.
Are you sure Chris hasn’t been secretly listening to REM while you weren’t looking, Jules?!
It’s great bass work either way. It just put me in mind of Mills’ melodic approach.
I’m looking forward to taking Matthew up on his offer of a beer at his place and a sneak preview of the new album. Really looking forward to hearing it.
And thanks for taking the time to clear up those details – really appreciate that.
Best of luck with the new album – cheers!
I hate to do this, but I have to agree with Jules on this one. I am unfortunately unaware of all but the most radio available REM, I will have to look into it if I’m aping this Mills though. I’m quite flattered non the less.
Chris
[...] Matthew, I’m not going to do a proper review now, because the album has no fixed release date yet, [...]