YUNGBLUD - ‘YUNGBLUD’ Review: Confident, energetic and raw as ever
A liberating, dance-floor-filling, feel-good listen; the directness and simplicity offer up something fresh for YUNGBLUD fans…a chance to dance, and forget reality briefly.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Credit: Give It A Spin 📸
YUNGBLUD, now 25, is back on the scene with a coming-of-age (self-titled) third album. Explosively confident and bold, “YUNGBLUD” is fused with raw energy, ear-worm songwriting and excellent vocals.
It’s an album to reclaim his authenticity as an artist after being ridiculed online for several months; misconceptions fly sky-high, accusations of being an industry plant linger and trolls poke fun at his questionable descent into the world of pop music. Dominic Harrison (aka. YUNGBLUD) responds with a no-nonsense, fast-paced, pop-rock record inspired by The Cure, Radiohead and The 1975.
“YUNGBLUD” directly addresses the accusations that made Harrison suicidal and question himself as a person and artist. It's an album he started working on pretty much after releasing second album weird! and would have developed over the year. Speaking to NME, he explained that his “mission is to make those people slagging me off wearing a YB t-shirt next year, because it’s not about telling them to f*ck off. It’s about going, stop hating, get on the dance floor”.
I’ve been a fan of YUNGBLUD since his debut (”21st Century Liability”) in 2018, followed his work to follow-up “weird!” and have seen him live four times, most notably at his memorable Brixton Academy performance - which shone a spotlight on the rising star (at just 22 years old).
Upon first listen of “YUNGBLUD”, it felt what had once been a dangerously sexy, carefree and politically-charged rockstar from up North was now an American-college pop artist preaching a diluted message to a TikTok generation of listeners. An album relentlessly marketed on social media to reclaim YUNGBLUD’s authenticity felt more confused than ever.
Credit: YUNGBLUD 📸
It’s obvious as Harrison is further in the company of some of the biggest names in the world, things will change and develop. There are more opinions to take into consideration, bigger audiences to please and money to be made. It’s not uncommon. Every artist goes through it.
On a second and third listen, an album that felt deeply lost and incoherent started to make sense. It isn’t 21st Century Liability, it isn’t weird!, it isn’t Hope For The Underrated Youth and it isn’t ironically YUNGBLUD (his debut EP, titled the same).
None of the 12 songs is original. Then again, YUNGBLUD has always taken massive inspiration from the ‘original rockstars’ who paved the way for his own self-discovery – and he’s intent on being the fire that brings light back to these genres in a world full of hate. Arguably, though, this album is the least original he’s done to date – to be honest.
I won’t sugarcoat it, it’s full of auto-tune and pop-orientated structures. But, I can’t lie either. The production is phenomenal, every song is immensely catchy and the whole piece as a whole is immediately accessible to pretty much anybody. As long as you view it for what it is, you’re in for a real treat – one that’ll be sure to hit no.1 in the UK charts.
It’s a liberating, dance-floor filling and feel-good listen. The directness and simplicity offer up something new for YUNGBLUD fans, a chance to dance and forget reality for a brief second.
Weirdly, my biggest frustration with the album is also the thing I came to love. All of the songs are so f**king short. They start telling (somewhat) of a story, and then it’s over like it was rushed almost – but as I said, it also gives breathing room to flow with that energy.
Credit: YUNGBLUD 📸
:: Track By Track ::
Starting with The Funeral, we’re greeted with a gnarly bass line, an instantly gratifying drum beat and a riff inspired by The Cure. Harrison gets straight into it, listing his insecurities in a well-produced and undeniably catchy pop-rock song. It’s a song we’ve been familiar with for a while, as the lead single debuted back in March 2022, with a video featuring Ozzy Osbourne.
‘My hair fell out cause I died it cheap I want a real fake smile, but I hate my teeth I want to tell you that I love you, but I just can’t speak I’ve got a fucked-up soul and an STD‘
Following on is another equally addictive track, Tissues, continuing the high-paced energy, this time actually sampling The Cure’s famous single Close To Me. We’re not complaining, as the lyrics ‘I’m in love again, and tomorrow I’ll be sad’ unlock an anthem-ready track beaming with positivity about letting go and being in the moment.
Next up is Memories, a collaboration with 21-year-old upcoming singer WILLOW. Beautifully simple and straightforward, WILLOW and YUNGBLUD power through 2m30s of pure de-compression. It’s, again, fuelled by a punk-esque drumbeat and features an acoustic guitar. The highlight here is the end guitar solo from (I believe) Adam Warrington, which you can’t ignore. The whole song is over super quickly, takes no punches and leaves you breathless by the end. It’s not going to change the world, but remember the aim – feel good pop-rock. And they smash it, together.
Cruel Kids continues the sound we’re now familiar with. It’s not one that stuck out much to me and had me singing The Nights by Avicii at points strangely. It sounds full of envy and sadness, hidden by an uplifting sounding synth drumbeat and loud sound. In contrast, Mad is another explosion of energy, it’s difficult to listen to the lyrics at points – unless wearing earphones, as it sounds somewhat muffled through distortion, but hey, when you’re dancing, I suppose you won’t even care. As long as you know the chorus, consisting of:
‘I don’t think they understand
I know that I’m goin’ mad
Everybody wishing I’d be something that I never have
I don’t understand
Maybe I’m goin’ mad x3’
When the fun ends, I Cry 2 starts up, which is one of the more auto-tuned/robotic songs of the 12 tracks, taking drastic influence from The 1975 and the popularity of American rappers. Lyrically, it’s very self-aware, and humorously drops in ‘everyone online thinks I’m not gay, I’ll start dating men when they go to therapy‘ aimed at those nasty haters. There’s also a nod to his Northern roots, ‘Ya know what I mean?’, reminding us the YUNGBLUD we signed up to isn’t completely gone. The track itself is about men talking about their feelings, go on Dom.
Sweet Heroine is one of the album’s highlights. It starts with an eery and distorted piano, setting it apart instantly, offering a small break from the raw kick-through-a-door energy so far. The song opens with ‘see the thing about these days, is you meet someone, they think they know who you are’ it can be interpreted as a direct love song but also a cry for help, in a time where new-found fame is starting to hit home for the 25-year-old. Honestly, it reminds me a lot of It’s quiet in Beverley Hills (2020) where Harrison sings directly to his fans explaining fame isn’t what he expected after he’d longed to visit California in the aptly named track California on his debut.
It touches on subjects like people desertion and grief, in the end he just needs to call his Mum. The title could be a metaphor for how he’s feeling, or, he’s taking Heroine – which, if he is, would make sense, linking back to ‘…sat inside a goldfish tank where people fix themselves with rubber bands, I don’t want them to believe that I am different’ from It’s quiet in Beverley Hills.
I really admired this one, as it felt like a third part to a coming-of-age trilogy tying three radically different albums together.
Credit: YUNGBLUD 📸
After we’ve all had a little cry, Sex Not Violence puts the album back on track; tying 80’s ‘Stranger Things’ synths, a menacing bass line, that punk drumbeat again and a broad-stroke but pinpoint accurate electric guitar. The contrast between the verse and chorus in this one was fun. It has some character to it. And when that chorus hits, you better be ready. Didn’t you know? Sex not violence. Go shout it!
Don’t Go was a pretty forgettable track, in comparison to some of the others. I’m not surprised that YUNGBLUD said it almost didn’t make the cut. Following a similar format lyrically and musically, it doesn’t stick out – but it’s a nice filler. A pretty simple love and (almost) breakup song with a catchy melody, combined with Harrison’s fantastic voice make for a hit I suppose.
Don’t Feel Like Being Sad Today does much better, once again inspired by The Cure, it really hits that pop-rock nail on the head, and then-some, providing a hair-thrashing chorus that’ll have feeling good in seconds (which is good, because it’s only 90 seconds anyway!). It’s non-stop fun, but does sound like something from an American College film.
Die For The Night comes within moments of the previous track ending, sounding a bit like early 00’s boybands (think Busted, McFly). The saving grace here is the tie-ins to Die For The Hype and the part it plays in the introspection alongside the previous songs.
One of the biggest songs on the album is also the last, offering up a similar finale to The Freak Show on weird!. Say hello to The Boy In The Black Dress. Battling the stigma Dominic Harrison has felt about being different, this track is an ode to being yourself. Lyrics include;
‘The boy in the black dress
How I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I wish he was dead
The boy in the black dress
How I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, tell all of your friends
To drown him in misery’
This leads onto the final verse, giving us an insight into Dom’s mental state:
‘He tried to erase him by 24
Because now he can’t walk out the door
They all think he lied, but the lord knows he tried
To be something that they all would adore
They hate what he is
And they hate what he’s not
But hate is nothing new you will see
From the grave to the cot
How I wish that I forgot
That the boy in the black dress is me’
It’s a track that follows Dominic from the very beginning to losing himself in the world of public hate, to the point where he is now siding with so-called trolls and turning on himself in a depersonalisation exercise of self-destruction. Until, thankfully, the self-awareness re-ignites that the empowering figure of the ‘boy in the black dress’, the one that’s gone through such turmoil since birth, and that he himself now hates, is him. And that acceptance saved him, and now we’ve reached this epic self-discovery track, it’s clear the rest of the album was channelling the anger pent up inside him to reach this climax of new-found identity.
:: Round-Up ::
As the album closes, it shuts a door on what YUNGBLUD has been, and what is to come. This third album is brimming with energy, positivity and shout-about-it lyrics.
Non-stop from start to finish, it embodies the essence of Dominic Harrison and does so with anthems that’ll fit into the wider YUNGBLUD puzzle in the future.
Does it reclaim YUNGBLUD’s authenticity? In a way, I think it might have been done. Confidently proving that he is in control of his career, and being one with his identity again – stronger than ever. While it may be more stripped back and pop-orientated, you can’t help but stay excited about where this newfound confidence will go next.
Song Highlights:
Sex Not Violence
Sweet Heroine
Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today
The Boy In The Black Dress
Now, it’s your turn. Give it a spin, and tell us what you think on Insta or X.
Rating: 7/10
Thank you for reading, why not stick around? 🖤
