YOUNG WIDOWS - Old Wounds

I'll be honest, it had been quite a while since I'd been waiting for an album like “Old Wounds”. Yes, a fine slab of 90s noise-rock that quotes (but also reworks) without embarrassment or reverential fear the sound of now-legendary outfits such as Jesus Lizard,  Shellac, Fugazi,  Girls vs Boys, Unwound, Hammerhead, Oxbow and most of the Amphetamine Reptile roster. Because last year Pissed Jeans had already rekindled interest in that kind of sound, only to miss the mark due to a substantial lack of good songs. That's not the case with these Young Widows, a Louisville trio (…) who already have one album behind them, “Settle Down City” from 2006.

So, let's say right away that "Old Wounds" features at least a couple of above-average tracks like “21 St Century Inventions” and “Delay You Pressure”, which wouldn't look out of place in the repertoire of the legendary bands mentioned above. Because Evan Patterson's unhinged vocals manage to reach the frenzied, incantatory heights of beasts like Henry Rollins and Eugene Robinson, because the sound, jagged and irregular, stops just short of turning mathematical, thus retaining a fairly strong emotional charge, and above all because the songwriting is of a very high standard.

The rest of the record holds up pretty well too, starting with the morphine-drip “The Guitar” and “Feelers”, where you can almost hear the nocturnal seizures of the never-missed-enough New Wet Kojak, while on “Let Him Be” it's the Fugazi of “End Hits” who resurface.

In short, with these Young Widows the signs are now unmistakable: enough with the 80s, get ready for the 90s revival. Bring out the stretchers and reopen the asylums.

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19/10/2008