You Me At Six - Sinners Never Sleep (Album Review)
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Written by Marcus Colley
“It’s a lot more in a…not in a new direction, but kind of the same evolution between our first two CDs, just kind of a bit more mature, bit more grown up, the rockier bits are heavier and we are just more of a rock band now I think, we are a lot more grown up. But we’ve still got everything about us that all our fans love, so it’s not too drastic.” Chris Miller, guitarist.
This about sums it up, You Me At Six are back with their hugely anticipated third album, 'Sinners Never Sleep'. They are certainly the same band in regard to some of their songs not being as good as they could be, but still filling you with such innocent delight and pleasure that after a second listen I’d go as far as to say it’s better than their previous album ‘Hold Me Down’, perhaps better. They have earned their title of ‘Best British Band’ given to them by Kerrang.
The album starts off with the first single off the album ‘Loverboy’, an upbeat tempo and powerful guitar kicks it off to a good start. The opening “Da da dada da da da” almost chant is mimicked by the guitar and then Josh jumps in, in his typical style but not only are they back, they seem to be back with a vengeance and with the bass a somewhat darker feel. However it sounds as good as they’ve ever been with added freshness and excitement. We end ‘Loverboy’ with the same chant we started with.
‘Jaws On The Floor’ starts and wasting no time, Josh pounces on the microphone and begins telling us what’s what. Keeping the pace of the previous song, “We can be anything, we can be anything, we can be what you like!” He boasts as Max backs him up and they play with the rhyming structure, speeding it up in the second verse. A somewhat reminiscent of Panic! At The Disco in the first half of the song with echoic guitars and a bass which you never quite feel. Fade out.
‘Jaws’ has barely finished before, the guitar enters again and Josh begins with “I hate to break it to you but…” and off we go again for ‘Bite My Tongue’. This is the song the fan-girls have been waiting for, the anthem, the song most likely to be played over and over and over. The guitar starts off nicely dark and metal-esque, hinting at what’s to come. The first verse is over before you know it and the ridiculously catchy chorus slating his fellow band members “You keep me on the edge of my seat, I bite my tongue so you don’t hear me…” Josh almost cries out.
The reason I say it’s going to be a favourite becomes apparent, Oli Sykes, front man of the metal band Bring Me The Horizon storms in, “DON’T FORGET WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED, DON’T FORGET WHAT YOU’VE HEARD!” he cries and then something else barely intelligible, he eloquently adds “FUCK… YOU!” twice, the chorus is repeated with a bit of help and we fade out.
‘This is The First Thing’, comes in and rudely ruins the nice rock vibe we had built up from the first three songs. It seems to be very influenced by Paramore, almost as if Josh had written it for Hayley. It is a nice song and I wouldn’t be surprised if the record company made it the next single but it’s quite mainstream and lacks substance.
‘No one Does It Better’ is a slow beat melancholy song, telling a story about presumably a girl leaving him. The verses are played well acoustically and not overdone but the chorus is fairly sickly and seems to be missing something. The bridge makes up for it though and it’s just under the mainstream line. Notable lyrics, “If I were an honest guy, I’d give this rolling mouth a try.”
It seems now that they’ve got their sadness out of their system and are ready to rock the rest of the record. ‘Little Death’, experimenting with new pedals and effects the guitar sounds fresh and the lyrics are packed full of attitude and feeling. This is a masterpiece. “We are not your lovers, we are not your friends, fuck what you believe in, cause this is the end.”
So now I expect the next song to continue the momentum, but they’ve still got more pain in their hearts so ‘Crash’ starts, a song similar in almost every aspect to ‘Always Attract’ (He even hints to it) from their first album, ‘Take Off Your Colours’. A beautiful song, they wisely speed it up about halfway through and he sings it with a bit more emotion. Psychedelic guitars now open ‘Reckless’ and stay with us until the chorus build up. The drummer, Dan Flint really gives it some, switching from half-time to 4/4 and back again and changing up some of the time signatures, the ‘silent’ hero of the song. “Don’t hold your breath I’m not losing sleep over you, I’m Mr. Reckless, with a capital R” Josh sings relentlessly. It seems that this song was just to play around with their guitar effects and they had no real deep lyrical ideas for this song.
‘Time Is Money’ opens very well, something out of a Machine Head song, “I’ve got to get this off-a my chest, I’m starting to feel a little unrest” Josh begins and with the same kind of intensity as Iggy Pop he continues until 2 minutes in, Winston McCall, front man of metal band Parkway Drive roars the drummer, bassist and guitarist into a frenzy and they continue that way until the end.
“I don’t wanna sing the same old thing…” Josh wails for ‘Little Bit of Truth’, as I roll my eyes and think, ‘Well don’t then!’ The violins are a good addition and the cleverly played drums and simplistic guitar save the song from becoming yet another ballad. I did feel shivers but perhaps I was cold or perhaps it’s the cry he adds to it three and a half minutes in, it’s almost crying out to the universe.
‘The Dilemma’ is arguably the best song on the album. This is exactly what I was hoping for from the album, new, fresh, loud but still packed full of attitude, feelings and funk. Nicely layered song, slightly taken aback but then impressed by the unexpected trumpets which appear as Josh wholeheartedly sings, “She said, who do you, who do you, think you are?!”
Quite rightly the last song on the album as it’d be especially difficult to follow. ‘When We Were Younger’ starts off with some sort of feedback, a cross between the start of an especially atmospheric Death Cab for Cutie song and the start of an equally atmospheric Pink Floyd. The drums are tingly and energetic, the bass plays 3 times per 4 notes which add to the slowness, but this time it is not melancholy but very nostalgic. It gives the impression it was written for a dead father figure, very personal, almost as if this is the song they’d been trying to write their entire career. The song builds up to a climatic end with Josh almost crying at this point, the drums keep up and suddenly the song ends with, “…you’d be proud of me.”
Overall, ‘Sinners Never Sleep’ is certainly an achievement for the band, if it had been their first it would have been impressive but the fact that it’s their third shows they have gained a real depth and insight. They are no younger young pop rockers singing euphemistically about sex and getting wrecked. They are mature musicians with something to say but with an undeniably cheeky sound which they own. A carefully planned, well written album with a few snags but a charismatic, cinematic adventure nonetheless.
'Sinners Never Sleep' is released in the UK on 3rd October.
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So now I expect the next song to continue the momentum, but they’ve still got more pain in their hearts so ‘Crash’ starts, a song similar in almost every aspect to ‘Always Attract’ (He even hints to it) from their first album, ‘Take Off Your Colours’. A beautiful song, they wisely speed it up about halfway through and he sings it with a bit more emotion. Psychedelic guitars now open ‘Reckless’ and stay with us until the chorus build up. The drummer, Dan Flint really gives it some, switching from half-time to 4/4 and back again and changing up some of the time signatures, the ‘silent’ hero of the song. “Don’t hold your breath I’m not losing sleep over you, I’m Mr. Reckless, with a capital R” Josh sings relentlessly. It seems that this song was just to play around with their guitar effects and they had no real deep lyrical ideas for this song.
