Young Legionnaire - Crisis Works

In the works since 2009, Young Legionnaire and their debut Crisis Works is the product of Bloc Party’s Gordon Moakes and yourcodenameis:milo’s Paul Mullen stealing whatever time they could afford between their respective projects to bash out some scorching sounds. Playing together as an official band in earnest since last year with drummer Dean Pearson, Young Legionnaire are making up for lost time with a rigorous tour schedule displaying their intense live presence. People expecting anything akin to the aforementioned bands should turn away now. Young Legionnaire is a different beast entirely and is not for the faint of heart.

The opening songs, Twin Victory and Numbers, the albums vanguard single, act as the band’s statement of intent in sonic terms: pounding drums, vocals on the point of cracking, chugging guitar and loping bass. In other words, Young Legionnaire is designed to be played at maximum volume. Things start to variate with Even the Birds which begins with a spoken word announcement over a megaphone, reminiscent of Patti Smith’s more revolutionary moments, seemingly a harbinger of coming disaster. Reacting to the recession blues the world has been suffering from in recent years, the end is never far from the mind in Crisis Works and each riff and snare drum hit has an ominous quality.

A Hole in the World slows things down in pace and allows for space to breathe with some euphoric delay-laden guitar histrionics while drums build in the background. It is in these ‘quiet before the storm’ moments that Young Legionnaire start to flex their songwriting muscles. This song is sure to be a follow up single, boasting catchy melodies and a unifying chorus that ties the building soundscape together. Paul Mullen’s voice possesses a Brian Molko quality and some of the songs do have tinges of Placebo’s raw early works, albeit lacking some of the pop sensibilities. These Arms and Youth Salute in particular have this feel and offer some of the albums more melodic pop moments. Don’t be fooled though, even at their more radio friendly moments Crisis Works still cuts like a knife.

If I had one main criticism of this album it would be a lack of variety. Quite a few of the songs tend to blur into one or aren’t particularly discernable from one another. It should be illegal for a band bursting at the seams with energy to sound so pedestrian, but sometimes unavoidably the album suffers from filler and a lack of dynamics. I can’t help but feel a condensed EP with the best songs on this album would have made a better and more interesting release.

One word describes the sound of Young Legionnaire: cataclysmic. As the album title Crisis Works suggests this is an album aiming to articulate the sound of chaos, which on the most part it succeeds in doing. The sounds are visceral, the rhythms: primal. Despite a lack of variation in some places, the band is definitely one to watch out for in future so check Crisis Works out and indulge in some unashamed headbanging.

Crisis Works is available from record stores now on Wichita.

JM