Album Review

Wild Cub – Youth

• 14th Jan 2013

This debut LP from two piece Wild cub is a mixed boxed. The first track, Shapeless, stumbles into your ears like a frantic mass of synthesised noise, the samples not the finest and the vocal melody not quite strong enough to support itself against its rapid pseudo drums and glitch-synth sounds.

Things do improve for the second track, Colour, though. Colour is catchy, danceable and would not be out of place gracing a party scene in that long forgotten TV show, Skins (this is a good thing; it always had good music if nothing more). The album reworks the same formula for most of its duration; fast paced, electro-indie, most with very similar vocal structures, as if the band they think they are almost on the edge of that perfect tune but just can’t quite attain it. Straight No Turns and Hidden In The Night offer a slightly more disco funk feel (which is a welcome change) and other tracks like Streetlights and Drive go down the slow road (excuse the pun), and it almost works – but something about it doesn’t quite grab.

The standout tracks here are Jonti, for its more interesting use of percussion and semi afro-beat rhythms, and also Lies (UK Exclusive track) as its super catchy and another you could see going down well at your local indie discotheque. Some tracks sound almost like Arcade Fire have been given a collection of Casio keyboards, but otherwise Wild Cub are for fans of New Order, Passion Pit, and Metronomy. In conclusion, a poor opening track, though the rest of the album shows promise, even if it is slightly unadventurous.

Venue: Youth
Support Band: Big Light Recordings