Mind Over Production? | Empty Bottle Evenings

Feb082014February 8, 2014February 10, 2014No Commentby Bake

Young the Giant | Mind Over Production

Posted in Music

The other night I watched about 3 hours of live Queen concert footage. You know, the usual Thursday night. I had read that their Wembley Stadium performances in ’85 and ’86 were legendary. And I have to admit you do walk away pretty impressed, especially with how well they commanded the crowd. And those were huge fucking crowds. Like 75,000 people. Must be the power of Freddie Mercury’s stache. Like most people I only really like a handful of Queen songs, but if I was there in the mid 80s, instead of, I don’t know, crapping my diaper, I probably would have been a huge Queen fan. They just have that quality, the one you hear about with Springsteen and Prince so often, that when you see them live it completely changes your perspective on them. This is actually how I became a John Mayer fan. Yeah, it’s that powerful.

It’s obviously premature to suggest Young the Giant has that quality, but last spring when I saw them at Boston Calling, they stole the fucking show. Going into the set only knowing a couple songs, I wasn’t expecting much, but they fucking ripped it up. You know, as much as an indie band can rip it up. Maybe it was the pairing with nice spring weather and a healthy serving of beer, but they made thousands of indie kids dance like they actually knew how. And during the slower jams I was admittedly swaying like a mother fucker. By the time they closed out their set with their biggest hit “My Body”, people were going apeshit. Part of it was just the mood, part of it was Young the Giant nailing their set so far, and part of it was that particular song is undeniably catchy, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that many people simultaneously singing, clapping, and jumping up and down. And I’ve attended way more shows than any human being with $200 dollars in their bank account should.

Their performance made me a fan so I downloaded the rest of their songs. Their first self titled album had that light and airy feel (is this an album or a bag or potato chips?) that hit the spot for the rest of summer. Jangly guitars, strangely pleasing high notes, toe tapping drumming, yeah it won’t knock your socks off (how does that physically happen?) but if you’re driving in your car some night in July, they probably won’t disappoint you. Young the Giant’s new album Mind Over Matter keeps some of that feel but unfortunately some of their songs get lost in over production. Keyboards show up in odd places, and a couple tracks seemed like half hearted attempts to get air play on alt-rock stations including the first single “It’s About Time”. Which I know is crazy, who the fuck listens to the radio? They’re not half bad but I think their strength is having their own sound, not producing songs that could be found on an Incubus B-side album.

There are some standout tracks like “In My Home” that are reminiscent of earlier songs like “My Apartment” where I find the band to be at it’s best. While still pretty catchy most of the songs could benefit from having more of that live feel. Again the over production doesn’t help. It sometimes seems that this album is geared towards creating a larger audience, and possibly making them dance. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it works. The title track from Mind Over Matter has some forgettable off key keyboards and low key vocals during the verses but the kind of hook that you just know will be appearing in the trailer for a show on NBC any day now. And that’s not terrible in itself, but it does make me feel like this could be a transition album. Not to mainstream acceptance, because apparently their songs have been featured on several TV shows already. (Which is pretty much the new “discovering a band on the radio”. What the hell was playing in the background? I gotta google that later.) Anyway, I wonder if this will be another band that sounds more like Lady Gaga by their 3^rd album, fails to impress anyone, tries to recapture their sound from the first album and never finds it again.

I appreciate that Young the Giant didn’t try to make the same album twice, I mean I liked the first one, but it wasn’t the best thing since sliced bread. That’s reserved for Kanye too. Mind Over Matter is most definitely worth listening to if you like the band or even the genre (admittedly an increasingly meaningless word). I don’t love it, but to be fair I’m not sure that I love the band either. Maybe they’re just a decent band with a few good songs, but they put on a great live show so they seem more impressive. And if it works for rock legends, fuck it, it might not be a bad template to follow.