Review Summary: While this album isn't bad, it's painfully average
You Me At Six are an English rock band from Weybridge, Surrey. They’ve seen moderate success throughout their career with albums like Take Off Your Colours and Sinners Never Sleep. Night People is their fifth studio album and is released on Infectious Music. The album sees a bit of a departure in sound, opting for more of an arena rock vibe, with loud guitars and big choruses, much in the vein of Kings of Leon or Band of Skulls. So does this new sound lead to anything special?
No, not really.
One of the major issues with the album is how painfully average it sounds. Both lyrically and in its composition, everything feels like a recycled mess. Nothing here feels remotely original. The band themselves pretty much sum it up in the song “Brand New:”
“Don't you pick it up
It's got nothing new to say”
Songs like “Heavy Soul” and “Brand New” sound like Kings of Leon leftovers. These songs try to be these huge stadium anthems, but rarely does it ever hit the mark or provide the energy necessary to make these types of songs really work. “Take On The World” attempts a folk rock ballad and mostly falls on its face. It’s pretty boring and you can call the way the song is going to go from the moment the song starts. “Can’t Hold Back” sums up this record pretty well. A cool idea is presented (the guitar tone sounds nice in this song) but it never goes anywhere from there. The writing and composition is just so painfully mediocre that it just doesn’t come across well or make for anything that sticks in your head for an extended period of time.
It’s not all bad though, the album actually ends in pretty good fashion with the songs “Spell It Out” and “Give.” The former being a slow burning romp that breaks the typical “verse-chorus-verse” format for once. It’s a nice change of pace and it actually suits the band quite well. “Give” is the closer and is another standout. The finger picked guitars that start the song turn into twinkling guitars (or possibly keys, not 100% sure) laid over everything and the bass gets to stand out here, adding a bit of depth not found elsewhere. This is definitely the best hook found on this record as well. Lead singer, Josh Franceschi is also a highlight throughout the albums relatively short runtime, putting in good vocal performances.
Overall, this album isn’t bad, however nothing here warrants a second look or multiple listens. You can easily put this record on and have a fine time just about anywhere, anytime but it will never challenge you or make you want to come back. I feel if the band takes their songwriting in the direction much more in line with the two closing tracks, then they would fare much better with this new sound. As it stands though, this is just painfully average.
