The Young Knives - Voices of Animals and Men Album Review

The Young Knives
Voices of Animals and Men
Album Review

What did Franz Ferdinand start? Every new British band now seems to need to reference them (and Gang of Four with a knowing nod), behind their spiky guitars and Blur-y rhythms. The thing is, The Young Knives may just pull it off. Despite hailing from Ashby de la Zouch (how un-rock is that?), and deliberately affecting a more-nerdy-than-Franz-Ferdinand appearance, there is quite a lot of great music on this little disc.

Despite starting out all generic-2006 Brit pop, with Part Timer and Weekends and Bleak Days, the album really kicks into a perfect gear with In The Pink (having already hinted it could, with The Decision), a swinging Libertines-like song that's as catchy as anything on Radio 1.

From there, it maintains its ups and downs: to be honest, if a computer threw the Futureheads, Blur and Supergrass into a mash-up, it wouldn't be a million miles away. The Young Knives may be just arch enough to be the 'next big thing', but Voices of Animals and Men is an inconsistent disc. There is, however, an awful lot to build on.

Rating 7/10

Mike Rea
Adult Contemporary Essentials