You Me At Six: Take Off Your Colours
You Me At Six: Take Off Your Colours
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Monday, 06, Oct 2008 01:02
Slam Dunk Records, out now.
In a nutshell...
Catchy emo tunes but nothing to write home about.
What's it all about?
Brit emo popsters make their make with full-length debut Take Off You Colours. Released on Slam Dunk Records, the album consists of 13 tracks and includes the singles If I Were In Your Shoes and Gossip.
Who's it by?
Formed in Surrey, You Me At Six seem to have done a hell of a lot more than the typical band ahead of releasing their debut record. Nominated for Best British Newcomer at last year's Kerrang! Awards, the quintet have played a number of festivals and gone on no less than seven UK tours. The band is made up of lead singer John Franceschi, drummer Dan Flint, Matt Barnes on bass and Chris Miller and Max Helyer on guitar.
As an example...
"Jealous minds think alike you're a dent in time/I'm wasting all my time, you're only gone." - Jealous Minds Think Alike
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Unlikely. Though at the rate the UK rock press are gobbling them up, they could end this year with a gong or two.
What the others say
"We haven't seen the best of these lads; they are still in their teens after all." - Gods In The TV
"With their not-remotely-British charm, ear for melody and good old-fashioned pace they achieve the holy grail of the genre. The memorable hook!" - Strange Glue
So is it any good?
With pop sensibilities, impossibly good looks and fresh faces it'd be easy on first glimpse to lump You Me At Six with pre-teen pre-packaged 'rock' acts such as McFly. Luckily their debut, Take Off Your Colours, is an album which what it lacks in inventiveness makes up for in hard work.
Although they come from Surrey you could easily mistake the band for one from Southern California, with opener The Truth Is A Terrible Thing sounding - lyrically and musically - pretty much like the average US pop-punk band. In fact average is a word which basically sums up the majority of the 13 songs on show. Mid-paced pop-punk/rock, mixed in with a few slower anthems and the archetypical epic ending track, I'm afraid you're likely to have heard this type of music done much better by groups on both sides of the Atlantic. Take Off Your Colours, while pretty upbeat and accessible, suffers from a little too much filler (especially during the first half of the album on tracks such as Call That A Comeback) and not enough killer.
However, things improve as the record develops with ballad Always Attract standing out as a highlight. Meanwhile, Tigers and Sharks is as full of bite as the animals it is named off.
Overall, there's nothing really wrong with this record as such but unless you're already a committed fan of the genre Take Off Your Colours won't do anything for you. While there are some hints of promise, the record just fails to recreate the magic - or imagination - that other British emo/post-hardcore such as Funeral For a Friend, Lostprophets and Hell is for Heroes have offered up since their respective emergences on the scene. Overall, You Me At Six's name gives the best indication of the strength of this album.
6/10
Ashley King
"YMA6 ARE NOT EMO LIKE WTF YOU ARE SO STUPID." - Holliee Andrewson
"Why is anything remotely rock/alternative or just not mainstream crap always dubbed as 'emo'?" - Ninja R
"Personally I love this album, only 2 or 3 songs I don't like. & yes, they're not emo. I agree with Ninja R." - Sofaay Forsyth-Taggart
"This was so clearly written by an adult. THEY ARE NOT EMO. Excuse them for not being mainstream c?@p. The album is immense(: Adults shouldnt be allowed to write about what they dont know about... " - Maddie Hutchings