Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, of course, and the time has come for me to talk about one of the weekend’s most fascinating new album releases with ‘New Album Release Fridays’ on the blog, which ties into my goal of writing up about a different piece of music every day! ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ marks the second appearance on the daily blog for the surprisingly good Southern Rock-influenced rock band Gang Of Youths led by the frontman David Le’Aupepe of Samoan and Māori heritage. These guys are from Sydney, Australia and they seem to be more well-known there – having won four awards at the ARIA Music Awards Of 2017 including ‘Album Of The Year’ and ‘Producer Of The Year’ alongside Adrian Breakspear for their second album, ‘Go Farther In Lightness’, that was also released that year. However, they have been gaining daytime airplay from Radio X and BBC Radio 2 in recent years, they have performed on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ in the US and they have toured arenas in support of Sam Fender too, and so it seems to me that they have been gaining mainstream traction in the rest of the world in recent months. It may expand even more when the masses hear ‘Angel In Real Time’, Gang Of Youths’ third studio album, which arrives today. Announced on Twitter last November, the new LP tackles the subjects of grief and loss – as Le’Aupepe has sadly lost his father – as well as indigenous identity. Describing his father in a press release, he says, “My dad was a gifted and passionate gardener. It’s where he funneled a lot of his energy and sensitivity, and despite our humble economic status, we were always surrounded by beauty”. Let’s hear a song about the subject – ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ – below.
This has been shaping up to be a crowded 2022 for Gang Of Youths as they continue to sell out headline solo gigs, and of the heart-wrenching recent single that we have just seen above, the ringmaster David Le’Aupepe recalls, “I wanted to reflect on how I became dependent on grief for solace and inspiration”, explaining, “The cycle from numbness to acceptance to yearning plays a role in my approach to grieving my dad’s death. As a result, most of the time, I feel a bit futile as a person”, in his own words via press release. Featuring backing harmonies by the Auckland Gospel Choir, percussion from drummers from the Cook Islands and sweeping string arrangements by Tom Hobden, L’Auepepe sounds both self-lacerating and liberating on the fast paced and emotive ballad as he recites lyrics like “So, as you canyoneered from our world upwards and the angels take their place/I was the loser at your funeral/No emotion conveyed” to the sound of some free-wheeling guitar melodies and energetic drum backings, as he shifts through a story of accepting loss and the cycles of moving on from a heavy bereavement at a concise structure and speed. The vocal delivery in the verses feels a little more poetry-based, with urgent lyrics like “I was drawn out in vain/And the idiot I am just figured/In the wake of your leave/That I’d never hear from you again” that feel like they are being half-spoken with a winking eye as the vague sense of humor shines through. Sung against a crescendo of uptempo guitar riffs and a grandiose backdrop of backing vocals and strings, the chorus of “My hand on heart/It’s not a thing that I’ve been dreaming of/And it goes without my blessing” and “But it comes and goes/And shows me all I’m missing” provides a very triumphant response to the death of a close relative and puts a little focus on the person who is suffering from the event, instead of solely the father himself. Introspective in the songwriting, confronting difficult topics with a brave sense of personality, and conjuring up some excellent instrumentation that gives it the anthemic feeling that it strives for, what really – quite honestly – amazes me about ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ is how it takes a concept that is deeply relatable and quite appealing to the mainstream in a way, but it still manages to feel intimate and unique to Gang Of Youths, as the track does a good job of convincing me that only David L’Aupepe could have wrote the track as it feels so reflective and expressive of himself. Most of the bands who have released music that Gang Of Youths remind me of – like Kings Of Leon or Liam Gallagher – have often released material that simply feels a little manufactured to me and I have found tricky to relate to as an individual – so I can often take it or leave it. I’m glad to say that with Gang Of Youths, the former is the case. Overall, ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’ is pretty bloody fantastic in my opinion. A track that has a fair share of influences that it wears on it’s sleeves and it feels like it is about the person who made it, as all of the most moving music does to me, while feeling like an authentic tribute to L’Aupepe’s lost father. An irresistible mix of Bruce Springsteen, 80’s Blues Rock and this more modern, cinematic incarnation of The War On Drugs that we heard on Kurt Vile’s bands’ recent album. This is a really great piece.
As mentioned before, ‘In The Wake Of Your Leave’, is the second single from Gang Of Youths to earn a little bit of attention on the blog. You can check out what I made of ‘The Angel Of 8th Ave.’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/08/14/todays-track-gang-of-youths-the-angel-of-8th-ave/
That was all that I really had to say about Gang Of Youths today, and I hope that you enjoyed this week’s entry of ‘New Album Release Fridays’ on the site, as your support is always highly appreciated. ‘Scuzz Sundays’ returns in two days time where we’re going to revisit a Post-Britpop classic from Richard Ashcroft’s old band. Before then, I’ve got some more accessible music lined up for you tomorrow as we listen to one of the latest tunes by an established Electronic Pop group from Devonshire, England who have remixed many artists over the years including Lady GaGa, Franz Ferdinand, Goldfrapp, Sebastien Teller and Gorillaz. Their seventh album was released last week.
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