Last Days Of April – Angel Youth – Review

Last Days Of April

Angel Youth (Deep Elm)
by Tim Den

It’s bands like Last Days Of April that make me feel like I should quit yapping about “progression” and “experimentation” in music. Angel Youth, despite being a complete rip-off of Clarity-era Jimmy Eat World (check out “Glowing Me Choking You,” the carbon copy of “Lucky Denver Mint,” as well as the singer’s vocal punctuations and word usage), is an emotional meteor shower that flattens me to the ground with every song. It might be nostalgic reaction (Clarity being one of my all time favorite records), but I’m just too shaken up by its pure melancholy to examine it logically. Some say the best records are those that effect you so much, it hooks you before you realize what it sounds like or what it’s similar to in structure. And if that’s the case, then Angel Youth is one of the most visceral, hit-you-in-the-heart-before-your-brain-reacts records in indie rock. I’ve stopped trying to pin this record down critically: It made me its bitch by song two.

Following emo guidelines yet utilizing its best qualities to fullest potential, Angel Youth radiates with glimmering guitar licks, pain-soaked singing, pretty piano licks, some programming, and lyrics that make me miss my girlfriend even more (“The Days I Recall Being Wonderful” and “Life Companion Murphy’s Law” being the best examples). The “rock” is never full-tilt, but the broken-hearted-yet-trying-to-be-optimistic content more than tips the scales. You can say none of what I just described sounds any different than any other indie/emo band, and I’d be a fool to argue with ya… but no clone can deliver the kind of passionate personal hell Last Days Of April has created. A marvelous gem that will have you crying yourself to sleep, singing the words.
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