Review by Josh Felty
Rating: *****
Here's my take on emo: it's grunge without the edge. Unless the edge you speak of is a razor for cutting oneself. Granted, I've listened to some so-called emo (for those outta the loop, 'emotional' music...a cross between punk, hardcore, and sometimes grandiose New Wave) in the past decade, starting with At the Drive-In whom I still consider the purveyors of the emo sound. Some would argue The Used or maybe even that one British guy with the weird pompadour started it. No matter the source, it's quite refreshing to hear bands like Arctic Monkeys and this one, You Me At Six, break from the mold without entirely redefining it with a completely new level of sappiness.
What I loved the most about You Me At Six's latest, Hold Me Down, was that it is an album more concerned with rocking and moving an audience than with how much black nail polish they have on their fingers. What's funny, and rather ironic in many ways, is that You Me At Six does not hail from sunny California or the boroughs of New York City: they're from across the pond, specifically that wee little isle that brought us The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, and that god-forsaken Boy George.
From the opener "The Consequence" on, you're hit with a barrage of hook-filled punk-pop goodness that is both extremely moving and catchy. The ditty "Underdog", not surprisingly a single, thuds along brilliantly with an explosive drumtrack and a melodic thread as alluring as it is multifaceted. Adrenaline keeps pumping in with "Playing the Blame Game", a lovesong which declares 'Desperate minds mean desperate measures/You've got to get this one together/You're young and in love/That should be enough' and all before an orchestral part chimes in on the mix. "Safer to Hate Her" has a magnetic guitar riff at its start that draws you into the fresh verse and a brief yet interesting chorus part. The balladry in "Liquid Confidence" extends through the punch-in-the-gut chorus and really is an amazing song. "Hard to Swallow" and "There's No Such Thing As Accidental Infidelity" are both examples of the great places this genre is going melodically, demonstrating a songcraft neither imitation or homage at all, but something new.
Perhaps that in itself is the greatest aspect of Hold Me Down: it sounds so much like an American pop-punk band, it's scary. There's none of the Anglo-vocalizations one would easily find in Arctic Monkeys or Oasis or somebody. In "There's No Such Thing as Accidental Infidelity", there's this impressive group vocal part that takes the chorus 'Go back home now/And go back to sleep/And we say, go back with someone else/Who wants you more than me' and really drives the chilly nature of that lyric to the core. I was impressed by this record, the band's sophomore effort, and have to admonish these guys to keep writing such incredible songs, that at the end of the day have a sense of humor and honesty that is more poetic than the whole wrist-cutting schtick.
When the dust clears, that's what makes a 5-star album, in my eyes. Well, ears. And if you manage to throw in some volatile hooks in there with the substance to match, you're set.