Second Youth – Glass Roof EP

With so many outlets to discover new music these days, band’s often feel they have to resort to corny marketing campaigns or other non-musical methods to grab people’s attention, but the reality is that, generally speaking, if you make good music, market yourself sensibly and crucially, get out and play live people will find you. Maybe not as many as would have 20 or 30 years ago, but in my opinion it all comes down to music, and that seems to be a mantra shared by Second Youth, an Italian/English punk rock outfit featuring longtime friends and touring companions Dick Smith and André Suergiu. This duo have embraced the freedom after ending long stints in their previous bands (The Legacy and Gold Kids respectively) and are playing the kind of music that inspired them to pick up instruments in the first place. That enthusiasm is obvious after about 5 seconds of the opening riff on their Glass Roof EP, as the title track is equal parts early Bombshell Rocks combined with the chaotic swagger of The Replacements and showcases the duo’s ear for melody.  The simple yet effective riffing, featuring fret runs and solos overlayed  onto a solid rhythm section whilst still telling a pseudo-tragic tale through lyrics like Promise me that when I’m gone you still listen to this song, nothing ever  really fades away really comes together to create a tune which is better than it has any right to be.

Keep on Dreaming starts off with a slow, driving tempo which keeps threatening to burst to life, but rather than do what’s expected it simply ends after a minute. Surprising, but in this case it feels like a fucking good thing.

How It Was follows the same model as the title track, but with a better balance on the vocals, which is (dare I say it?) almost Rancid-esque. Lyrics follow a predictable nostalgic theme, pining for the freedoms of youth and lamenting past mistakes, but the fret runs and simple solos that featured on Glass Roof are prevalent here as well, and unsurprisingly, work just as well.

The Glass Roof EP provides a really impressive taste of what we can expect on the full length LP that Second Youth are reportedly working on at the moment.

The Glass Roof EP from Second Youth is out on December 4^th via Uncle M Music.