Gang of Youths - Go Farther In Lightness

Rating:

Nothing short of mesmerising.

Remember that idea of music being pretty powerful? To pick you up from the dirt and dust off your shoulders to go back swinging at whatever life is poised to throw at you. It’s a power that practically launches itself out of ‘Go Farther In Lightness’ - a 75-minute opus that finds Gang Of Youths not just aiming to shake a few cages, but launch them out of the window. Full of wide-eyed visions and red raw honesty, it’s a poetic and gripping body of work that places Gang Of Youths as not just an important band, but an important voice in 2017 and beyond.

Searing with a purpose on every note, frontman Dave Le’aupepe intertwines tales of heartbreak, loss, triumph, and love in a manner that translates a thousand thoughts into anthemic sparks that Springsteen and U2 would fall over for. Whether it’s the Thunder Road-chimes of ‘Fear & Trembling’, the woozy chills that clasp from ‘Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane’ and ‘Persevere’, the chest-pouring emotion of ‘What Can I Do If The Fire Goes Out?’, ‘Atlas Drowned’ and ‘Say Yes To Life’ or the panoramic sweeps of ‘The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows’ - ‘Go Farther In Lightness’ is a record that doesn’t compromise or tone itself down, but instead opens itself up to reveal not just defiance but vulnerability at the same time.

With that at the very core, ‘Go Farther In Lightness’ is nothing short of mesmerising. A record that should sit as a reminder of music’s vital role, it finds Gang Of Youths reaching out to those who trouble to find a place of their own - in turn serving up a novella of incredible scenes and snapshots of what it is to be human. Now that’s powerful. Jamie Muir