Review Summary: Green's most beautiful sounding and tightest songwriting to date.
Originally announced at the same time as “Beautiful Things”, “Young Legs” is the somewhat long-awaited third album from Circa Survive front man Anthony Green. He shows us much more mature songwriting while keeping it very minimal and simple at the same time. The production and engineering choices from Will Yip are fantastic and fits the mood of the entire album so well. Green continues the experimentation we heard on his last release, “Beautiful Things”. There is a lot more piano on this album than his usual acoustic guitar song writing method so prominent on Avalon. Listening to the album it has a much more positive and uplifting message although, the music may leave you feeling otherwise. While progressing on the sound of “Beautiful Things” he is much tighter in the song writing department. This feels like the first complete ALBUM from Green. Not just another kick-ass collection of songs released on an album.
The album starts out with “Breaker”, which was the first single released. A piano driven, very A.G. style song. It is one of the stronger ones from the album although, I’m not sure if I would have chosen it as the first single and first track. It’s perhaps more accessible to people who are already fans. “Young Legs”, the title track, is a down piano ballad that has that depressed but not depressed sound we heard on Avalon. “100 Steps” is very reminiscent of “Love You No Matter What” and has a catchy “Oohh ooohh” chorus that easily gets stuck on the brain. “Too Little, Too Late” and “Conversation Piece” are both very vintage Green, with beautiful melody only he could make sound that way over a strumming acoustic guitar. The middle of the album carries on with more of the same style piano ballad although, the vocal arrangement for the chorus on “Anytime” is very pop and catchy while adding some more guitars. “Stolen” is a cool sounding interlude kinda thing clocking in at about a minute and a quarter. It’s missing some stuff and I wish it was turned into a full song because I like where it was going before the track ends. “Conversation Piece” mentioned earlier, is easily my favorite song on the album. In my opinion it shows Anthony Green at his artistic best. A simple and organic sounding acoustic song with an extremely catchy melody that pulls you in right at the beginning. The album starts to wind down with “Shine” which in my opinion, is one of the strongest songs on the albums. The verses are very slow and but bring you around to a chorus that almost lifts a heavy weight off your shoulders and picks up into a soft harmony of vocals. The closer “You Have to Believe It Will Happen” is a decent track, don’t get me wrong. I just feel as though it drags out somewhat and could have been cut a minute or two shorter and still ended the album quite nicely. Not, that this track doesn't do that though.
All in all, this album shows great progression in songwriting from one of the best “solo artists” to break out of the post-hardcore scene. Anthony has had a somewhat cult-following since he helped rewrite the rules of post-hardcore with Saosin on their release, “Translating the Name”. I’m hoping for a deluxe or special release of this album with a couple more tracks or demos like on the past two albums. His other two releases featured 20 and 21 tracks respectively. With only 10 songs its by far his shortest release and leaves me with an unquenched thirst for more. Plus I love seeing how the demos fleshed out with the Good Old War influence. When you take out the filler “Stolen”, it leaves you with 10 awesome songs but, just seems a little short. To me, 10 tracks always seems like a minimum full-length effort for any artist to put out. My bull*** opinions and wishes aside, the album is definitely worth picking up and enjoying through the gloomy fall and winter months ahead.
Recommended Tracks; “Conversation Piece” and “Shine”
MOST IMPORTANTLY! Don’t listen to me, buy the album and find out for yourself!
