Usually, if you hear 'hardcore' you can pretty much sum it all up in your head in a few seconds, being generous to the bands, perhaps too generous.  Fact is, the movement should have collapsed years ago.  And the so-called 'post-hardcore' movement is just as lame as calling modern art 'post-modern' when in fact it just looks like Andy Warhol pissed all over it again.  'Post' is hastily stapled onto a lot of things today in a vain effort to determine what point in history we live.  Let's just leave it at 'everything sucks now'.  But, now and again, someone finds a way to make us pay attention, at least a little.

All Teeth have been around a little while and went through a few member changes before releasing this, their second album.  The clear stand-out on Young Love is the guitar work.  The chording is hyper clean and streamlined with some extremely catchy hooks and moments of experimental darkness, such as on the ender "Oh Disposable Me", which features one of the coolest ending lines you're ever going to hear.  And the bass has a nice flap to it for more of a metal bend to the sound.  The drums are pretty ho-hum and generally what you'd expect for the fast riff changes.  The vocals include a variety of special guest appearances, so that's kind of cool, but the band itself is easily able to hold its own in this department with a total of three singers at the front.  They generally deliver with that tongue-in-throat sound found in most hardcore, with occasional sections of spoken word and harsher shrieks.  Pretty standard, but fitting.  One element that's notable is that this album is listenable the entire way through.  Not easy to be that consistent with this type of music over several songs, and perhaps that's why it's so damn short...

See, though it has some damn fine moments, Young Love suffers from lack of girth.  The album only comes in at a pathetic five songs and a meager thirteen minutes.  Sorry, but that seems like a huge disappointment for what's considered a full-length CD.  Don't get us wrong, these guys deliver quite well most of the time, but perhaps put a bit more effort in song writing before you release?  In addition to this issue, this album has some rather annoying what-the-fuck moments.  At some points the singing sounds literally retarded or downs-ridden, and there are other moments when the music goes a little too far in left field, such as the odd, reggae-like breakdown near the end of the first track, "Goodbye Faye Dolan".  That part in particular was unsettling in the 'come on guys' kind of way.  But, overall, Young Love is a pretty compelling listen, just not a stellar listen.  Hardcore fans should eat it up.

Official Site

Written by Arkus

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