Something told me I wasn’t going to like the three-track EP from Colchester five-piece Street Light Youth before I even fed the CD player.  Floppy of hair, fluffy of face and still shy of their twenties by a clear couple of years, what could they possibly offer a receding, chubby faced thirty year-old?  And besides, the kind of youth that hang around the street lights near my house would rather set you on fire literally than ignite any yearning to hear more from them.

On first listen, I was smugly pleased that my initial fears had been justified as it all sounded too disjointed, making me want to be tucked up with something less intense than out on the street with this lot.  However, during a second listen to “Oh, Vacuous Sweetheart” the first track here, a foot started tapping and horror of all horrors, it was mine!  Whilst it is mentally-structured and chaotic, it really is first and foremost, something different.  With swirling growls and whoops, vocalist Sam cartwheels around the melodies (yes, I found some of those on the eye-opening second listen too) like a teen the day his ASBO had been lifted.

Second track “Outlaws” schizophrenically twinkles from spiky punky pop to wall-of-noise via raw, stripped-down and sometimes tribal beats, not letting up once along the way. 

Closing demo “Geriatricks” is the victory lap of “Oh, Vacuous Sweetheart”, bringing the listener more of the same crazy high-jinks but injecting that mysterious “stuck- in-my-head-now” ingredient that some bands would kill to master.

Definitely ones to watch, and hopefully they’ll never be reigned-in, Street Light Youth’s uproarious pandemonium sets them apart from everyone else at the moment, and for the patient listener, they are all the more endearing for it.

Contact: www.myspace.com/streetlightyouth

Track Listing

O Vacuous Sweetheart
Outlaws
Geriatricks

Line Up

Sam - Vocals
Jethro - Guitar
Bruce - Guitar
Matt - Bass/Vocals
Craig - Drums