Review: Young the Giant – Mind Over Matter (2014)

Young_the_Giant_Mind_over_Matter

Since Sameer Gadhia took a leap of faith into the crowd at the 2011 VMAs, while debuting the future hit “My Body”, Young the Giant has become a bigger and bigger name each month—and everyone saw it coming. I will never forget watching them perform that night on national television and the goose bumps rushing up my arms as I stared at the future of a bleak and spiraling music industry. This indie rock band from California (establishing themselves in 2004), began as a group of high school and college students who got the necessary education to be where they are today. Aspiring rock stars: take notes from them.

Their first full length and self titled album, “Young the Giant”, quickly blew up from its October 2010 release date to a peak of #18 on the U.S. charts in January 2011, and they have not turned back since. Having now been three years of touring and riding on high, this new album (“Mind Over Matter” 2014) comes with a deep anticipation from listeners. That being said, it is no surprise that it comes in at #4 on the charts this time around (Released January 21st, 2014).

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF5uMvCGUCM&h=297&w=450]

What is cool about it: Young the Giant knows very well what they are doing; with this only being their second album, they know what works and what does not. In that, this album has so much variation, not just from track to track but also within each song—something that so many groups and artists over look and it results in just 1-3 songs being bought on their boring and “every song sounds the same” albums.

For those of you who love to drive and are looking for new music—this is it. When I began listening to the album, that was the first thing that popped into my mind as I was quickly drawn into the driving beats, synth/MIDI work, and the reiteration of the singers melody through the doubling in guitar or bass for example. “Firelight”, which reminded me a lot of the Beatles or Rolling Stones, “Daydreamer”, “Camera” (most beautiful song on the album), and “Teachers” are all songs that you must divulge into!

Downsides: Very few. To the lovers of this band, I think very few will be disappointed since it has been such a long road since they have gotten some new music from Young the Giant. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the vocalist’s work on the new album—but that is a minor detail to the elaborate work put in on the instrumentation side of things. They produce some amazing and beautiful work when they slow things down and sing from the heart, so I could have used a few more pieces like that, but all in all they supplied their listeners with an incredible album.

Score: 4.8/5.0 

Young the Giant is on Facebook and you should buy the record on iTunes

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