Turning Gen Z problems into psychedelic rock bangers: WEIRD! - YUNGBULD REVIEW

 

Boundary-pushing rock artist from Doncaster, Yungblud has released his first complete album to date, and it's simultaneously something that was completely expected and genuinely unexpected.

Previously, I've found Yungblud'ss music a little bit hit and miss for my taste. He's released some exceptional music and other things that just haven't hit the mark.

His latest release weird! is not an exception to this but luckily, the album is 90% hit and 10% miss - which makes it pretty damn good.

weird! kicks off with 'teresa', an initially slow starting and building track that perfectly combines Yungblud's gritty and emotional vocals with anthemic choruses; a theme you'll find throughout the whole album.

It mixes all sorts of inspirations, from the Beastie Boys to early Green Day to David Bowie to...circus music?

There's a combination of raucous fun of 'strawberry lipstick' with heartbreakingly host truths about fame in 'it's quiet in beverly hills'. 

In your face instrumentals are put together with insecure and hard-hitting lyrics that can hit deep. He embraces incredibly topical subjects for his Gen Z audience and peers (since he is part of the generation himself) such as sexuality, mental health, and dreaming of something better. Obviously, these are by no means new themes within music, but there's a way that Yungblud does it that makes these issues very modern and very, well, relatable.

The tracks range from low-key to full-throttle to straight up, well, weird! It catches you off guard no matter which emotion you're aiming to experience by listening to the album, and there's something quite refreshing about the chaotic nature of this release

It's not a perfect album, there are some moments where I'm wondering when the next track will come but it is incredibly impressive as a first real debut album. I'm looking forward to seeing what Yungblud releases in the future because there's a hell of a lot of potential for him to really shake things up in the industry and bring a certain level of punk to a new generation.

4/5 STARS.