It’s very rare that an indie rock group so thoroughly strives to be epic. When I ponder the few examples, I immediately think of Arcade Fire, but AF have not tried to systematically hone in on their bombast quite like WU LYF does on their debut album. A few details:
- WU LYF stands for World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation. I feel like with that information alone they’re pretty much halfway to their goal
- The album cover takes the title literally, but, as opposed to it being a pic of someone just giving fire to a mountain, the friggen fire’s turning into a mountain thingy to actually meet the mountain. And it’s a mountain cut and pasted from a picture of a forest burning, so it looks like what would result if you asked a 3rd grader their interpretation of the title.
- A few track names: “LYF,” “Heavy Pop,” “14 Crowns for Me & Your Friends,” “We Bros"
- The album has space to it but doesn’t feel muddled by copious amounts of reverb. You’ve got your standard rock group setup, but then you’ve got some organ that makes it all feel so much greater than the sum of its parts. You feel like this thing could fill stadiums by virtue of the fact that it would fill any container by volume in which it is put.
- About five whole lines on the album can be understood. The words are nonsensical and sung by a bear-throated lunatic, but it’s somehow more universal than the most rote lyrical clichés as a result. You see, not everyone can understand words, but everyone can speak gibberish.
Checkmate.
No comments:
Post a Comment