“Yeah I know you’re not heartless, your heart was just a mess.“
You Me at Six are a band that have been on my radar for over a decade now. My first introduction to them was via the track “Liquid Confidence,” ironically at the ripe age of 15 years young. Nevertheless, I found that track insanely catchy, and it reminded of Yellowcard. 13 years on and the quintet are now set to release, Truth Decay, their eigth studio album. I found my experience to be similar – enjoying some tracks but not exactly the whole picture.
The album does start on a fairly strong note with “Deep Cuts”. The main riff is very much Arctic Monkeys in tone and rhythm, but the band does enough with it to make it their own. They add some ascending synths are various points within the track, and vocalist Josh Franceschi delivers a strong chorus and energetic verses.
Then come a couple of tracks that do detract from my enjoyment of the record overall. Mixed Emotions isn’t insultingly bad, but I think I’ve heard the bass line, drum pattern and chord progression about one millions times in my life. There’s nothing special going on on the vocal front either, though the bridge adds a softer touch to the song that ends up being a nice palette cleanser of the rest. Similarly, “God Bless the 90’s Kids”, which the band has been playing live recently, is a rough listen. As a 90’s kid, it’s truly the anthem we never asked for, and it tries way too hard to be such. ‘They never know when to quit, they write their own script’ just seems so meaningless, and who would actually take solace in a lyric like that and feel emboldened as a 90’s kid?
Then compare these to “After Love in the After Hours” which boasts one of the strongest choruses on the album. There are some subtle, moody guitar riffs that add to the theatrical sound of the track. It flies for a 4-minute track. “No Future? Yeah Right” is one I wish turned out better, as I am a big fan of featured Rou Reynolds. I think the track does a lot right that fits within YMAS’ wheelhouse, but I’m left a bit disappointed that Rou is only brought in for a short verse. And the song as a whole doesn’t seem to realize that they have a stellar vocalist to build an instrumental around.
Then there’s “heartLESS” where during the chorus, there’s a cacophony of musical elements that just don’t mesh whatsoever. It’s like someone threw a pack of samples at a whiteboard and see what stuck. Combined with the fact that this cut is 80% chorus, it makes for a rough listen. I do think the chorus itself is an earworm, though.
The next 4 tracks are hardly worth talking about with the exception of “Breakdown” which is a cut that I think ends up as a decent one, but I disagree with the decision making behind the song writing. Even though a more hip-hop centric track could turn listeners off, I support the decision, as Franceschi has the chops for it and the emo twinge is effective. However, I think it would’ve been more effective and came across more genuinely if the high energy bits were more consistent. Use what you are good at and apply it to the song more, instead of simple trap-like verses with a minimal instrumental accompaniment.
“Ultraviolence” is another example of the band straying a bit from their normal structure. The thing is, the song largely seems like a Fall Out Boy cover, especially during the chorus. It even has the little “in the dark”, the rest is littered with these near spoken-word vocal deliveries that are not aided by the song instrumentally. The closer features Cody Frost who has a very pleasant addition on the vocal front as the album ends on a soft and decently strong note.
My return to listening to YMAS was not a stellar homecoming. I just feel like Truth Decay is a collection of tracks that lack substance, with some outliers. There are certainly catchy choruses and well written aspects to the album, but as far as my tastes go, they are far too sporadic.
4/10
You can pre-order Truth Decay here before its release this Friday.