[9/10]
Every summer I strive to find an album that I can listen to as I daydream of days at the beach (a wild dream for someone writing from the most landlocked region of the UK), chill out in the park or dance the nights away to. Last year it was Generationals with Heza, this year it is Wild Cub with debut album Youth. Combining modern math rock with a range of flavours from synth pop to funk, Wild Cub have produced a wonderful collection of music here.
Frontman Keegan DeWitt is an academy award nominated director and composer (for short film Inocente) who came up just short at last year’s Oscars. His skill as a composer comes through strongly on this album with each track being built of a number of layers that work so well together in building a story. This story of young wants and deprivation is at the centre of many of the tracks, which makes for rather lovely lyrics despite being a path well-trodden by the recent efforts of The 1975, Foals and others.
Musically the album is strong too. The guitar work is fantastic throughout with especial efforts found on ‘Summer Fires/Hidden Spells’ and ‘Thunder Clatter’.
Youth is an album perfect for the summer – from the chilled opening track “Shapeless” to the more energetic delights of ‘Jonti’. Fresh off a mini tour that saw them play in small venues in Manchester, Birmingham and London and having their lead single ‘Thunder Clatter’ feature in a recent Bose commercial, Wild Cub are set for big things. Their schedule this summer has them appearing at music festivals across the USA – hopefully before too long they’ll be rocking out under the skies of a British Summer.
Ben Rider
