Let’s be fair, no one really agrees on what Americana means. For some, it is about a certain sound; for others, a specific place; and some see it as a sonic summation of American life, hence the name. Throwing in the fact that Young Martyrs are from Bath, UK doesn’t really help us get to an answer, so you might as well ditch the generic tags and just revel in their brilliant music. And, as Mr. Joel himself once rightly got down to the nub of the matter – “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me.” (Don’t knock it, Glasshouses is a great album.) Well, quite.
Opening with the title track, a poised and polished folk anthem that gradually and effortlessly rises from understatement to crescendo, is a brave and brilliant move; forget more obvious sucker-punch shock-to-the-system first encounters, this is cleverly seductive, setting not only the tone, well, one tone at least, for what is to follow but drawing you in to their world without you even realizing just how hopelessly committed you already are.
‘Sugar On My Tongue’ then brings the more rock-and-roll vibes, roots-infused, energetic, and stadium-ready- a blend of sounds made where the Mason-Dixon line crosses through the M4 corridor, where the lower reaches of the Mississippi shed their majestic waters into the Severn Estuary. British-Americana… sorry, let’s not start all that again!
And if ‘Count to Ten’ is both space to breathe and breath-taking in its devastating delicacy, less-is-more squared, a song as much absorbed into the soul via some sort of sonic osmosis as merely listened to, the reflective and riotous ‘Seventeen’ stomps back in to remind us what the band does best. Skittering beats become more focused four-four, tensions rise, guitars squeal and squall, feet are firmly placed on the monitor, fists are in the air, and you can picture the sun going down behind the festival stage as they ride the song out to its logical conclusion.
This seemingly effortless third album signs off as it came in, a song built on disarming understatement, and ‘Miss You Today’ is as gorgeous a torch song as has been written in the roots world.
Bands often fall into one of two categories. Fantastic live bands that struggle to capture their essence in the studio or clever creators who fail to capture their potential live. As someone who has encountered Young Martyrs both live and recorded, I can tell you they are the rarest of things: a band that records great music and then goes even beyond its own lofty sonic benchmark when it takes the stage and delivers the songs. It is easy to see why they have already shared stages with bands as established and diverse as Badly (Horse-) Drawn Boy (to give him his full name), The Hooziers and McFly.
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