Young the Giant releases a suitable companion piece to their debut
The alternative-spacey and poetic group Young the Giant have finally released “Mind Over Matter,” the four-year-awaited follow-up to their debut self-titled 2010 record.
“Mind Over Matter” opens with a short instrumental intro track, “Slow Drive,” that catapults you into the rest of the album with exhilarating acceleration. The name “Slow Drive” actually strategically appears in the lyrics of YTG’s very last song on their first record, bridging the gap from album to album as well as leading into a familiar yet expanded sound.
The first lyrics we hear on the second track will bring a smile to fans who know YTG for their brief but powerful quips like the famous snippet from “Cough Syrup,” “Life’s too short to even care at all.” This time around they offer lyrics from “Anagram,” “Life’s a riddle, not a game of dice” as sort of a tribute, which automatically draws us in to listen and discover more.
“Crystallized” and “In My Dreams” both open with something of a yowl, tying these tracks together and starting them off with a bang. The heavier sound of “Crystallized” then transitions into a pop-driven hit that still centers on lyrical depth with lines like “Is the house we built still here? Is the human race sincere?” “Mind Over Matter” gives the album its namesake with the fundamental lyric, “Mind over matter, does it matter to any of us?”
“Firelight” is one of the best songs on the album, being the softest and prettiest track. Both it and “Cameras” remind us of YTG’s “Islands” from their eponymous album, offering the same dreamlike soft side and lullaby harmonies with the crooning guitar sending the lower melody bobbing in slow, rhythmic waves. “In My Home” and “Eros” offer something a little more upbeat, while “Waves” and “Paralysis” end the album with something slower but substantial.
YTG really has an art for making you feel like you’re drifting with the waves of laid back rhythms and intense moments while simultaneously making you think both deeply and freely.
Their distinguishable, continuous ethereal sounds elicit the type of feeling you would get while slowly floating or flying — or falling or sinking, depending on your interpretation.
“Mind Over Matter” feels like an extension of the band’s first record, with tracks that offer the same subterranean lyrics and out-of-body spiritual experience. While most of the songs on this record are fairly laid back and safe, the album blends together pretty flawlessly within itself and also with the 2010 release. A few songs possess that breakaway sound with the potential to enter into hit single territory, while the rest seem to be content as the ebbs and flows that tie the album together.