Young Knives - 'Terra Firma'

Personally this reviewer has always found The Young Knives incredibly annoying. Sure they have a couple of good singles but they are too gimmicky and it all seems well a bit contrived. Their Mercury nomination was baffling, as it seemed the LP was two great songs ‘She’s Attracted To’, ‘Rumour Mill’ and a whole load of filler. So it was with much surprise when after joining ‘Terra Firma’ half way through on the radio (and thoroughly enjoying it) I discovered it was a product of a band I had previously thought of as pointless folly in an over saturated market.

Whereas Young Knives (They have dropped the The, radical) previous output was Gang Of Four aping art rock with grating vocals ‘Terra Firma’ is a huge slab of radio friendly rock with it’s heart well and truly on the dance floor. Starting off with an Oasis like guitar this charade is soon wiped away by a driving beat and frantic, intense vocals from Henry Dartnell. The one thing that anyone will remember from ‘Terra Firma’ though is the chorus. “Fake Rabbit, Real Snake, Terra Firma Terra Firma.” That’s it, easy simple yet devastatingly effective- seriously it will not leave your head.

So Young Knives are back and actually living up to the hype, they would get the full 5/5 but they still have a member called House Of Lords which quite frankly is a full mark dropping offence so they can think themselves lucky.

Released 22/10/07 on Transgressive.