The Young Knives - Voicesof Animals and Men

Thu 9th Nov, 2006 in Music Reviews

OK, OK, let’s get it out of the way first – Leicestershire three-piece The Young Knives are this week’s NME hype band, following in a great tradition of over-hyped and easily hateable bands like Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, The Kooks, Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, The Futureheads et al.

But please don’t hold it against them. You see, far from another fashionista band attempting to flog the new-rock-revival dead horse, The Young Knives appear to do things their way. It’s why their bassist calls himself The House Of Lords (yes, even in the CD sleeve). It’s why they dress in ill-fitting grandpa vests and three-piece suits and not stripy t-shirts and leather jackets. It’s why their off-kilter album sleeve is full of information on some particular quirky English professions (beekeeper, Morris Dancer among others). And The Young Knives even earn some extra credibility with Aussies for recently taking our own pop wonder kids The Grates on tour around the UK.

Singer Henry Dartnell (brother of the House of Lords, no less) possesses a shrill, almost shriek-like English accent which at times sounds like it belongs in an episode of Little Britain. Musically, The Young Knives cover scant new territory but that’s not a negative – there are elements of XTC, Wire, Pulp, Blur and even contemporaries like the aforementioned Futureheads and Art Brut. The music isn’t particularly aggressive – in fact, English single She’s Attracted To is probably the angriest track here and even that features a ‘la-la-la’ break down. But this, coupled with the sort of lyrics only English bands seem to produce (your dad cornered me in the hallway/while you were in the loo/he gave me a right talking to/he said I was a terrorist!) and the spiky, you-can-even-sing-along-when-you-are-drunk chorus of “she’s attracted TO! She’s attracted TO!” assures that it will be a hit at your local indie club over summer.

It’s quintessentially English stuff; right down to the ‘modern life is rubbish’ theme which underlies much of the lyrical content. Weekdays and Bleak Days (Hot Summer) possesses an addictive rolling guitar line and a tale of pulling a sick day to escape the everyday drudgery of 9-5 life (“you live for the evening because it’s the best part of the day / and hold out for the weekends and bleak days of illness”) while Half Timer pretty much sums things up (“ooh, I had a job once, it was awful!”). It’s nothing new – in recent times we’ve had Arctic Monkeys and The Streets among others banging on about suburban nightclubs, late-night kebabs and feeling miserable – but it’s something even we on the other side of the world can relate to.

When The Young Knives become most interesting is when they depart from the tried-and-tested UK indie three chords to success they use throughbout tracks like current UK single The Decision (although it does contain the great lyric “I’m the Prince of Wales, I’m the Prince of Wales, and if all else fails, I’m the Prince of Wales”) is when they try to mix it up a bit and try something different. The highlight of Dialing Darling is the stuttering, messy three-piece harmonies and one track later Another Hollow Line is almost a quaint English seaside ballad.

Voices of Animals and Men won’t change your life, but it doesn’t intend to. As far as catchy yet ultimately throwaway pop-punk tunes go, you could do a lot worse.