4 out of 5

Label: Warner Bros.

Producer: John Goodmanson, Ben Hillier

‘Blame It On the Youth’ is, first and foremost, a fucking awesome rock album.  Swirling the sound from the band’s more punky EPs into an even louder, more raucous blast of aggression, ‘Youth’ bristles with enough angry energy to sidle past Chris Burney’s somewhat weak lyrics and the group’s tendency to fall back on repetition.  But even when things are less impressive they still sound good and can get your toe tapping, it’s just a fairly obvious divide to one’s ears what the winning tracks are and what feels more like filler… though the former definitely wins out quantity-wise on the album.

And what do we say about opening tracks?  It’s always a tough call to put your obvious winners right up front, and for several dozen spins of ‘Youth’ I would get stuck on the one-two punch of ‘Must Be You’ and ‘Say Goodbye,’ the second track doing an f-bomb rallying final chorus to really get your thrashing hackles going and the first track all spits and angsty anti-relationship snarls.  The album drops into some standards for the next few songs, but they’re tightly wound so it’s not really a let down, you’re just waiting for another burst of sound, and it’s easy to get misled by the fast-paced but ultimately flat ‘2B4.’  But the disc offers rewards as you dig in: ‘We Tried’ and closer ‘Valentine’ are incredibly rich, showing a strength in restraint of both themes and structure that makes you sense The Sun would’ve been capable of an amazing album if they weren’t in such a hurry to get to the next track.

So while the in-between moments of Youth might not stick out as memorable, they are the glue that carries you through from beginning to end, and unlike a lot of singles / filler albums, there’s no need to skip the tracks, since they’re produced with a wonderful sharpness that highlights the catchy riffs and Burney – avoiding silly lines, just not penning the most effective ones – is a very admirable and enthusiastic singer, with a lot of variation in his styles.  In other words: ‘Youth’ is always exciting, punctuated by moments of Awesome.