It’s been almost three long years since the world has heard from the boys in You Me At Six, yet their new album “Night People” which debuted early this month shows that they’re officially ready to break the silence. After highlighting their new sound in 2014 release, “Cavalier Youth”, I was curious to see what direction You Me At Six would go when it came time to debut “Night People”. The band never strayed away from their rock roots, adding softer aspects to many songs throughout the album, which in my opinion is what sets You Me At Six apart from many bands in their genre.
The fifth track on the album, titled “Brand New” is what stuck out to me the most as sounding eerily similar to past releases. If I were to suggest a You Me At Six song to a friend, it would probably be this one because it truly demonstrates the sound and musical aspects that You Me At Six seems to be going towards for the future. I also can’t help but love the line “and if your past calls, don’t you pick it up it’s got nothing new to say”. Clever lyrics and catchy one-liners are always the way to my heart and “Night People” has plenty to go around.
Aside from “Brand New”, my other favorites include “Swear” and “Can’t Hold Back”. “Swear” gave me a little taste of the previous You Me At Six that I fell in love with many moons ago. I think that it had a little bit to do with the hypnotic percussion playing at the beginning hook that kept me so captivated. The one downfall that I personally found was that I had hoped for more of the energetic rock that You Me At Six had in “Cavalier Youth” and “Sinners Never Sleep”. While songs such as “Swear” and “Plus One” have that heavy guitar vibe and angry vocals that I was looking for, I wish that there was more of this throughout the album to add diversity and a little more edge to their sound. I was disappointed and kind of bored towards the end of the album since many of the songs were too slow for my liking.
Despite my love of high energy songs vs. piano driven ballads, I believe that You Me At Six has set themselves up for great success to come through this album. They stay true to their roots and shy away from what was expected of them due to what was heard in past albums, showing that You Me At Six will always be a band capable of staying true to their roots while mixing it up in the process.