SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: YOUNG FATHERS – HEAVY HEAVY

Young Fathers
Heavy Heavy
Ninja Tune

On their recent release Heavy Heavy, we see Young Fathers at their ‘happiest’. Happiness is nuanced here, in the typical experimental fashion that echoes their previous projects. The vocals used on “Ululation” are one of the best examples of this – rousing, but with a chaotic and haunting loose structure that hints at the sacrifices and trauma underlying pride in one’s identity. Their award-winning work has always centred on the link between history and a looming postcolonial dystopia, which lies in the essence of this project too. We experience exhilarating blends of African folk sounds with gritty industrial textures in “Drum”, or the exasperation of “Tell Somebody”, a song that discusses the human nature of repressing inner struggle, that allows us to reflect on the temporariness of any sense of ecstasy.

Despite evident leaps forward with their style, there are certain points when the group lets their experimentation in tone overwhelm a song’s overall direction, most notably on “Shoot Me Down”. Its mixture of their signature bleak lyricism with the eerily joyous vocals strikes a one-time uncomfortable chord between nihilism and plain nightmarish euphoria. They nevertheless prove that this mixture is effective later on in the album, during the final track “Be Your Lady”. In this last tour de force, madness runs rife as social norms are subverted and broken relationships make sense again; the song’s collection of voices in unison is one of many instances where the album offers heart-warming solace to those enduring the crisis of a discordant society.

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