Review Summary: Lust for Youth mine the same set of influences as on their last two albums, but to thoroughly enjoyable results.
Hannes Norrvide began
Lust for Youth in the shadows. Originally a solo project,
Lust for Youth spent its first three years delivering gloomy coldwave that often conveyed a sense that Norvvide was holding something just out of reach, and the music was entrancing enough to draw you in to try to find it.
But what happens when a band whose musical approach consists of Chasing the Light finally arrives in it? Lust for Youth has been answering that question since growing to a trio on
International, flaunting upbeat synthpop that sends a message that they’ve arrived at their destination and aren’t interested in hiding anything any longer.
For the last five years,
Lust for Youth have come across like they’re on a victory lap they haven’t entirely earned - they’ll always be a band for whom it’s far easier to name the influencers than the influenced – and a corresponding sense of confidence has never been more at the forefront than on their self-titled release, one in no way diminished by the band reducing its membership to Norrvide and Malthe Fischer and that extends to proudly displaying the lyric “You know I can’t believe you/You’d rather watch HBO” near the top of the album cover.
As influences go,
Lust for Youth traces
Low-Life to such a degree that it may as well come out as an accompanying bonus feature the next time
New Order re-releases it, in particular with “Insignificant” echoing “Perfect Kiss” in its up-tempo synth-blast first half transforming halfway into a pounding instrumental outro in the track-two slot. Then there’s the “Face Up”-inspired track-eight closer “By No Means”, which hits with a level of
*** you intensity that nearly rivals that of Norvvide and Fischer doubling down on their goddawful band name in the album title.
Surprisingly, Lust for Youth’s area of greatest improvement here comes in the lyrics (HBO line aside) and Norrvide’s singing. Norvvide stretches out multi-syllable English words in his thick Danish accent to agreeable results, rendering “observations” as “OB-SER-VA-TIONS”. Same goes for “DI-AG-NOSIS,” “IN-SIG-NIF-I-CANT,” “DIS-A-POINT,” and, best of all, “STAT-UE-ESQUE.” It’s easy to get a feeling that Norrvide and Fischer’s duel knowledge of (at least) Danish and English frees them up to choose clever metaphors, such when a terrific refrain in “Great Concerns” rescues a preachy opening verse chiding climate change and evolution deniers as Norvvide decries how their impending ignorance or the sight of global warming itself “Hurts my eyes.” In this context, Soho Rezanejad and Ana Ivan’s vocal contributions feel a little unnecessary, though their entries (“Fifth Terrace” and “Imola,” respectively) on the album’s more textured second-half are both solid and add a bit of depth to what would otherwise be a mere collection of songs.
Of course,
Lust for Youth rises or falls depending on the quality of those songs. Fortunately, it absolutely delivers on that level. “New Balance Point” renders a petty romantic breakup (or is it a parental disownment?) through a well-constructed call-and-repeat framework between Norrvide and an array of pleasantly layered synths. The fantastic “Insignificant” would be the album’s chief contender for
Lust for Youth’s best song yet if “Venus de Milo” didn’t somehow top it just one track later. Its icy electronic arrangement supplies a perfectly eerie backdrop for Norvidde to mutter “the Venus de Milo would pale alongside you” before deciding to stick around “for all the wrong reasons.” Elsewhere, “Great Concerns” and the tropical-infused “Adrift” continue to find Norvidde and Fischer mining their usual set of influences to excellent results.
While it’s easy to miss the journey that led Lust for Youth to where they’ve spent the last five years, their self-titled album plays as a mission statement that they see no reason to shake things up. But as long as they churn out songs as good as these ones, it’s hardly the worst sentiment for them to keep celebrating that they’ve reached their destination.
