Yoofs

There’s a long and noble history of bands containing siblings in Rock ‘n’ Roll, a history which includes such greats as The Kinks, Kings of Leon, AC/DC and The Bee Gees. Looking to join this hallowed pantheon are Bournemouth based brothers Michael-James and Richard Dent; also known as Yoofs, with their debut album “Something”.

The album consists of laid back Indie/Rock, but its conception has clearly been anything but laid back, with the spectres of job losses and break-ups hanging over the band all through the recording progress of “Something”, their first proper release since 2011 EP “We Used 2 Be Fun”. So, the question is, has all of the strife and difficulty made this an album that can be placed alongside all those other great sibling efforts?

Yoofs

In a word, no. Unfortunately, “Something” is best described as pleasant easy listening. The album lacks any kind of bite or anything to make it stand out from the monolithic mass of bland Indie that currently sits astride the UK music scene like a vast yawn-inducing colossus. This isn’t necessarily a reflection on the musical ability of the brothers Dent. They provide lovely clear vocals, they play well and they write perfectly pretty songs dealing with the sort of everyday trials and tribulations everyone faces. But dear lord, a whole 12 tracks of it is rather dreary stuff. And those jangling guitar noises which appear to be mandatory on any Indie/Rock album produced since 2008 become tooth-grindingly irritating by about the third track of the album, no matter how well they may be played.

“Something” isn’t entirely without good points of course. The title track is a decent catchy little number; with quite a jolly, happy sound. Itís not quite as monotonous as most of the album’s other songs. There’s also “Show Me The Money”; a real gem of a track, with a more up-tempo melody and some very funky foot tapping bass guitar work. It’s one of the few tracks on the album that really stands up to repeated listens, and it gives a frustrating glimpse of the brilliant album Yoofs could have made. More songs like that and this would have been a very different review. Also; in a blessing we should all be grateful for, Yoofs have had the courage to stop hiding their melodies under a thick blanket of distortions and recording effects. It’s a brave choice but it pays off; as the brothers are talented musicians, and it’s always incredibly annoying to hear decent guitar playing smothered under a huge tidal wave of studio created fuzziness.

Yoofs

So overall, “Something” is a nice enough album. You can listen to it without wanting to rip your CD player from the wall and throw it at passers-by in a fit of rage. But there’s nothing really unique about it, and you’d be hard pressed to look back and recall the name of a single track you’ve heard (apart from “Show Me The Money”, that really is in a different class, and I thoroughly recommend downloading it). So while it would be unfair to say that once you’ve heard one Yoofs track you’ve heard them all; it’s not unreasonable to say that once you’ve heard them all, you do start to feel awfully like you’ve only heard one.

The album is available on bandcamp here.

Track Listing
Do You Feel The Same?
Shady Acres
Déjà Vu
It’s A Secret To Everybody
Take It From Me
Something
For Her
It Ain’t Over (‘Til Its Over)
Show Me The Money
The First Time
Toy Organ
It’s Been Fun

Links
https://www.facebook.com/yoofs
http://www.twitter.com/yoofsuk
https://soundcloud.com/yoofs
http://yoofs.bandcamp.com

Words By Elinor Day.