O.k. It’s a fair cop. I’ll admit that like many people who were drawn to this album, it was bought about by a staggeringly profound live performance and not because my friends or I had heard them much before; on the radio, somewhere in music news or on ‘music television’. I say ‘music television’ because of course I’m not referring to MTV anymore, where if I’m honest, the amount of up-and-coming bands you happen to glimpse are few to none. No, you may have and you can call me ignorant if you please but I had not heard much about the band at present. So The Subways are making a small name for themselves at this point, the band was drawn to the attention of Britain's media and public first after playing relentlessly in front of crowds "as often as we could" around London, and then after entering, and eventually winning, the Glastonbury New Bands competition. Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis was so impressed by them that he moved them up from the New Bands stage, where they were originally slated to play, to the Other Stage, where they played to a crowd of thousands on the Saturday afternoon. After Glastonbury, The Subways went on to play in both Reading and Leeds 2004, attracting yet more media and public attention.
It’s 2005, and the town I live in, Guildford, just outside London holds the annual ‘Guilfest’, a 3-day festival, held in a corner of Stoke Park, Guilford, Surrey (it's a big park!) for a capacity crowd of 15,000 each day. Unlike many other festivals, where the emphasis is having the latest big-name acts, Guilfest concentrates on acts both old and new, but ALWAYS quality. It's popular with people of all ages and backgrounds.
We turned up, squeezed our way to the front specially for this one act, because one of my friends had heard of them before, they were apparently making a name for themselves, yet I still hadn’t heard of them. She guaranteed us a good show…
So what of the ALBUM! You ask?? “This was meant to be a review of ‘Young For Eternity’ not what a jolly you had with your mates!” Well, it is sadly relevant, for you shall see as we progress, however I won’t plague you much longer, but what you need to understand through all this, is that The Subways have an aura about them live. Guilfest crowds, not to mention Leeds, Glasto and Reading loved them, proving that they really care about their act, whether it’s a huge festival or a smaller one. In fact, my brother has seen them live in Portsmouth again they were that good, they even dedicated the song ‘With You’ to my brothers late friend. Touching. A great band, who care. Excellent live.
The album, ‘Young for Eternity’ was heavily anticipated, the band had built themselves a micro empire during their successful shows in 2004, in which they ruled favorites with small mainstream success. Singles “Oh Yeah” and “With you” had been released to further forestall the release and had built up hype. Eventually on July 4th 2005, the album had been made public.
The songs were short, the lyrics catchy and the vocals dripping with pure passion and a love of what they do. With the exception of the last track, “Somewhere/Encore at 1am,” all tracks clock in at the 3 minute mark or under, short yet sweet. Not normally the formula I tend to desire in songwriting, but this is different. To many, the tracks will seem samey or clichéd, because of the music the band play, but in reality, after a full listen of the album, songs like “With You” and “Mary” could not be more juxtapositional, in terms of lyrical content, song style and overall SOUND. However, as mentioned, all the songs are about 3 minutes, and bearing in mind the band, it is comprehensible but, at under 45 minutes, it is a tad on the short side.
The band themselves are an exceptional assembly of musicians; they each know what they’re doing. Billy, obviously knows what he’s doing, as chief songwriter, he’s more or less the one responsible for this album of unfailing songs. Each song on here can be listened to, there’s not much ‘skip factor’ here. His guitar work is good, whilst not overly complex, he’s still very good, there’s a hook in every song, his guitar work has many defining moments and as a lyricist, he writes just perfectly for the song at hand. Mary provides a good solid bass line in each song, they’re relatively interesting to listen to, she’s reasonably independent in her lines, in that she doesn’t keep to block root note following, circa Mark Hoppus. Her defining moment by most would be considered “Mary” where she plays up the neck, then plays the run down, amusing the casual listener, however for me it comes at 1.26 in ‘With You’. She likes to slip in fills and riffs which go un-noticed in most Tabs. It’s one of those small gems that make it so pleasurable to listen to. Josh is also a very talented individual; his impeccable drumming keeps the pace going seemingly forever if he wanted. The Intro to ‘Oh Yeah’ is very proficient, its one of those ones that reflect the entire song in the first two bars, the exciting, upbeat kind, for instance Longview, leaves the same kind of impression.
Now this is where my (rather long) story comes into play; you see, as a live band, The Subways are unprecedented. A stunning performance and thoroughly electric crowd. The edge on the sound levels was crisp yet murky, the instruments blended into themselves, into each other, rising, falling in the sound levels. It was so blatantly a live setting, but the best part was the edge that the songs had. They felt raw and unrefined, but in the best possible way. The vocals were immaculate and so personal, it was a show I won’t easily forget, and I’ve been to many ‘top’ gigs, “RHCP in Hyde Park” “Greenday in Milton Keynes”, the only difference here is that Guilfest wasn’t recorded and the band aren’t releasing a CD or DVD to boost… maybe in a few years.
But in the mixing of the album, the crude edge to the songs has been cut, smoothed off, all the instruments have a defining role and sound, call me pedantic, but I preferred the live approach, the boundaries of which were unrestricted. And this was true for not just my show, not just my brother’s show but many of The Subways’ acts. This isn't necessarily that surprising, but with the sharp edges taken away, it all sounds rather sterile.
Another minor qualm is Mary’s voice. Its all very well in most places, she provides a pleasant harmony through her backing vocals but at certain points, you can’t shrug this ambiance of it feeling out of place, out of harmony. In fact, no, it’s not out of harmony, just that at certain points her voice seems shrill, almost whiny. High and squeaky, very nasal. Just listen to “Oh Yeah” when Mary sings, “God bless your soul girl, now you got the whole world. I'm on my way now. I'll get there somehow” Feel free to argue, but it just does.
Don’t let that hinder you however, the album is a real pleasure, and in all fairness and honesty, normally I would frown upon it heavily before giving it a listen. Away my old fashioned prejudices have been thrown, trust me, it’s worth a look into the ‘recommended tracks’ after all, “Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it” The songs are of a very good quality, well produced… as mentioned I suppose. But the writing is also of a respectable quality, and as a debut album it really is something the band should and no doubt are very proud of. It's amazing how a debut by a relatively unknown band can contain only good songs, many bands that have been around for years cannot boast such an achievement.
Besides if the music and band aren’t to your particular taste, still check out some pictures, the music isn’t the only thing of enjoyable quality…
Recommended Listening:
Mary
With You
Rock ‘n Roll Queen
Oh Yeah
Pros:
Even though I recommended the above four, they’re all good songs. Despite my moaning, the sound is good.
Very good deubt.
Good Live presence (Strictly speaking not a ‘CD' Pro)
Cons:
Mary’s voice can be irritating in places.
Despite being very good anyway, when I imagine the songs, I remember them live.
P.S - For those of you sharp enough to realise, yes I have already submitted this review before, this is the same one, I'm unsure as to whether this is breaking any rules, however when I went into 'The Subways' it displayed "Young for Eternity", however my review never appeared, after a long time of going to my user control panel to edit the relevant information, it never re-appeared. I have decided instead to do this. Forvgive me if I am disobeying any rules however, I see this as the only way, because the information is never correctly edited.
