Young Guns – Bones [ALBUM] Review

9/10

Record Label: PIAS

There were few bands who could match the quality of Young Guns over the last two years, with their debut full length All Our Kings Are Dead. It’s now though, with great excitement and cautious optimism, that we look to their follow up release Bones.

It all kicks off with soaring vocals, layered guitars and a poignant song title with opener ‘I Was Born, I Have Lived, I Will Surely Die’. We hang on the closing chord of this moving opener before falling comfortably onto a wave of guitar as next track ‘Dearly Departed’ begins. This is what Young Guns do so brilliantly. They know how to make an album feel special, and it’s the careful arrangement of songs that’s key to telling a story through the music.

This anthemic approach to recording is what we’ve all come to expect from the Buckinghamshire quintet, but far from being predictable it’s refreshing to hear that the guys haven’t been afraid to experiment on this release. Two interlude tracks provide smatterings of diversity whilst ‘Towers (On My Way)’ really shows a new dynamic for the band as it chugs through verses with the all the angst and woah’s of many of the band’s punkier counterparts.

If Bones is anything to go by, Young Guns have another very successful year ahead of them.

• Top Tracks
• Dearly Departed
• Towers (On My Way)

Words: Richard Barnes

Bones is out February 6th through PIAS