Why has nobody told me about Young Hunger before? Come on friends, I tell you about great bands all of the time! Young Hunger are a four piece band from Detroit, Michigan who play a mixture of pop punk and punk rock with a dash of indie rock. Back in July they put out their debut EP, Wear Me Down. I recently checked it out and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Let's check it out.
The opening song on Wear Me Down is named Every Promise I Ever Made To Myself. When I first clicked play I instantly thought "okay, here's another pop punk track" but it's so much more than that. The song moves between a modern pop punk to a melodic punk sound effortlessly. The song really comes into its own on the chorus with some superb gang vocals and a simple, but very effective, drum beat that drives the song forward, at times relentlessly. The second track is the song Haverhill. The opening musical sequence immediately gives the song a whole load of energy and, as soon as lead singer Ben's vocals hit, you immediately have that uncontrollably urge to sing along. Haverhill is about loving your town despite all of its shortcomings. There is a great guitar solo midway through the song that allows you to think about the message of the song before it finishes with the repetitive lines of "Who The Fuck Here Allowed This To Happen?" The intro to Holes In Your Tongue features a guitar pedal build being used to full effect with some interesting sci-fi like sounds. The beginning of the song is moodier than the previous two efforts and shows some great variation in Young Hunger's songwriting. Holes In Your Tongue is about a trying to help a bad person to change their ways and making them realise they'll only be able to change if they really want to. The song starts by listing said persons faults before the mood of the song is lifted when Ben gives out his advice, again supported by some excellent gang vocals.
The fourth song, I Woke Up Today, starts out slowly with some jangly guitar before the drums kick in. The drums on Wear Me Down have just been superb. The vocals again begin quite poppy before gradually turning into more of a punk rock shout on the chorus. Young Hunger have a gift for writing some huge hook filled choruses. I Woke Up Today is about realising you've been living in denial and taking the first step to helping yourself. The band really are at their best when they are belting out their tunes at full blast. There are some great fist in the air moments. The penultimate track Just One More Year is probably the poppiest effort on the EP. The guitars pack the song with a great energy and then the up tempo delivery of the vocals on the verses keep that feeling going but it's the chorus where things get interesting. The first chorus sees a muted delivery before that high energy verse comes in. By the time that the second chorus comes in we are treated to a primal scream delivery opposed to the muted style of the first. I loved this because it's not often that you hear such a contrast between choruses. The Things I Mean (But I Don't Say) finishes up Wear Me Down with aplomb. I think that this is my favourite song on the EP. It takes everything I've loved the most from the previous songs and packs it tightly into a brilliant three minutes and nineteen seconds of awesomeness. The drumming and guitar lead in at the start gets things going nicely, with the song gradually building towards some of the most passionate vocals on the EP. This is seriously a great song and the best way to finish the impressive debut from Young Hunger.
Young Hunger are a great new band on the scene and are really showing so much promise on Wear Me Down. I don't have any negatives to say at all and I urge everyone to check these guys out. You can then be that person who says I remember hearing their first EP when they become the next big thing in punk rock.
Stream and download Wear Me Down here: https://weareyounghunger.bandcamp.com/
Like Young Hunger here: https://www.facebook.com/younghunger/
This review was written by Colin Clark.
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