Youth Group--Casino Twilight Dogs

Australian rockers Youth Group have a warm shimmery halo wrung about their heads and engraved in their music. Its almost indescribable – and quite magical really – how easily they snap up your ears and have you totally captivated by their brand of summeresque dream-indie found in Casino Twilight Dogs. The quick doses of orchestral blends add a professional resonance to their music—and even in such allegedly sarcastic songs as "Sorry," Youth Group compels a warmhearted emotional undercurrent.

Yet they always linger on the edge of indifference. The lecturing vocals on "Catching & Killing" force my finger to linger over the skip button, but soon enough the group is safely back within the caring arms of their sunny instrumentals and warmly melodic choruses. "Dead Zoo" continues the summer melodies with some bittersweet lyrics, which evolves into the very vividly picturesque "Under the Underpass." Toby Martin’s tender vocal talents are a key part of Youth Group’s warm sound, and "Sicily" shows Martin off as the instrumentals take a back seat ("They'd need a surgeon / Because in this version / We'd become one person"). If the opening tracks of Casino Twilight Dogs didn’t convince you of Youth Group’s wrenching summer-melodies, I give you "Forever Young." The infamous cover that got picked up by The O.C., "Forever Young" seems to culminate the general feeling experienced throughout Casino Twilight Dogs: the desire for an unending summer, the death-like grasp of the feelings and experiences under the burning sun, and thoughts on what the hell it all means.

In my opinion though, "Forever Young" is beat out by "TJ," a song inspired by the death of TJ Hickey after being chased by the police. A slower and mellow tune, "TJ" features a blisteringly strong and haunting melody: "Do what we like / Go about our lives / Happy to see it says nothing about us / Read in the news / Just shake our heads / Happy to see it says nothing about us." This is indie, at its very purest form: innovation after innovation that never prescribes to what I, the listener, want to hear, but to what I may like. They may hit or miss, but Youth Group offers up flowery summer images, deep introspective and deliberating thoughts, a slew of different influences and techniques in a glorious attempt to connect with listeners—there’s so much here for everyone. Youth Group win a strong victory, gain a mass of fans, and rocket into 2007 with one of the best albums of the year.

(Published at MusicEmissions.com)