Young the Giant—“Mind Over Matter”
4 out of 10
By Hayden Prescott Corwin ’15
THE ROUNDUP
Young the Giant’s sophomore album “Mind over Matter,” released Jan. 21, is a sorry attempt at indie pop-rock music.
In 2011, the band released their first album “Young the Giant.”
“Young the Giant” was nothing special, and did not have me craving for another release.
“Mind over Matter” opens with a strange and unnecessary 48 second synthesizer intro track called “Slow Dive.”
This intro does not flow well in to the next track “Anagram.”
“Anagram” has a poppy beat with ambient sounds in the background and arpeggiating guitar riffs.
The music is catchy; however, the lyrics fall short on this track, which seems to set the tone for the rest of the album.
Throughout the 13 tracks on this album the lyrics fail to grab the listener.
However, the musicality of the album is technical. There are no bad or sour notes on any of the songs.
This technicality leads to a dry and bland record, though.
“Mind over Matter” feels like a formulated attempt to make upbeat, catchy pop songs.
The album lacks the originality that would make the music worthwhile.
The album is commercial and unadventurous, according to Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop, a music review website and YouTube page.
The drumming on tracks such as “Daydreamer” and “Teachers” sounds too aggressive for the styles of the songs, rendering the tracks incoherent.
Additionally, the singer of the band, Sameer Gadhia, has a unique voice that can be distracting.
His unique singing style takes away from the fact that he has a good tonal quality to his voice.
The overall feel of this record is overproduced; the band did not seem to progress as writers or as musicians.
They seem to have regressed, making trivial music just to release.
Usually a band’s second album is more adventurous.
There is no experimental element to this album and it does not have a new album feel to it.
If you are a person who enjoyed Young the Giant’s last release, you would enjoy this album.