This is one of the only records in recent years that I've gone into blindly that abruptly, unfailingly arrested me from minute one and track one until the triumphant, final onslaught of horns that close out "Say Yes to Life" fifteen songs later. It's not that there aren't tons of records I've adored this year (there are dozens); it's that it is not often that I find an album from an artist I know next to nothing about - no bio knowledge, no preconceived idea of sound and influences - that hits me so deep to my core that I become almost obsessed with the record. The past few months have been that way for me with Go Farther in Lightness, and I'm all the better for it and didn't even see it coming. That's the kind of feeling that makes you fall in love with music in the first place, and I've realized that sort of surprise is maybe even more special once you've been jaded or cynical at some point. Gang of Youths are here to grab us by the heartstrings, help us get back on our feet and shout along to the heavens and replenish us with something like hope, which admittedly is pretty hard to come by these days.
The Australia-based rockers (David Le'aupepe, Joji Malani, Jung Kim, Max Dunn, Donnie Borzestowski) had me instantly enamored when I pressed play on opening track, "Fear and Trembling." The melancholy barroom vibe of Le'aupepe's piano and vocals hit my sweet spot with that Springsteen/Waits wistfulness and prosaic delivery, and then the Youths gloriously blast into up-tempo, effervescent rock-and-roll bliss hit me like a shot of adrenaline on that first listen and has only gotten more addictive with each new visit. I felt like a half dozen of some my most beloved bands (The National, Springsteen, Japandroids, The Gaslight Anthem, Broken Social Scene, Beach Slang) were woven into this one indisputable force, dizzyingly reaching many of the respective heights of each of them song after song, and I hadn't even known the band existed days before. What Gang of Youths have birthed into the relentlessly oppressive atmosphere of 2017 is nothing short of miraculous for someone still deeply in love with the abstract powers of rock and roll and deep-diving, personal songwriting.
Go Farther in Lightness is an unquantifiable gift for those who give themselves over to all of its generous humanity and insightful punk verve. Sometimes sad, often righteously pissed off and always soul-searching, the songs bounce between heartsick vocals with swooning, elegant string arrangements of classical DNA to thunderous, guitar-assault, shout-along rock choruses ready for arena detonation, and occasionally this happens within a song. Likewise, Le'aupepe's lyrics paint pictures headier and more heartbreaking than many top-shelf songs (rock or otherwise) theses days. They confront the reality and weight of terror attacks, soldiers in battlegrounds, deaths of mothers and children, constant realization of mortality, wrestling with spirituality and God, self-medicating tendencies and more, and they set the setting for a very real human existence many of us can't shake or fully process this year.
Perhaps then, Gang of Youths' most towering achievement throughout all of Go Farther in Lightness is how incredibly rousing these songs are - this album is - and how great it is that it somehow reminds you how fucking happy you are to be alive and in love with music. From the rapturous chorus "The heart is a muscle, and I wanna make it strong!" to "Say yes to sin, say yes to pain, say yes to sticking with our city through a thousand days of rain" to urging us to drink wine, heal, dance and make love in the wake of terror is all a way of weaponizing idealism, to remind us to rally around goodness to combat the fraudulent, greedy, and evil shit consuming our culture. As Le'aupepe says, "Go be part of the new sincere." It's an earnest request, and it's aimed at all the music lovers with wounded hearts who are still dying to chase dreams.
With these songs, Gang of Youths have planted a defiantly optimistic, humanistic rallying flag and have generously reminded me that even when there is a darkness on the edge of town, it sure as hell ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.
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