Yungblud's new rock-opera is ambitious but confused

Telegraph

3 hours ago

While the music press has been busy grieving the death of rock 'n' roll, a 27-year-old from Doncaster has managed to become his generation's breakout guitar-wielding star. Chuck Robbie Williams, the Prodigy's late frontman Keith Flint and Dennis the Menace into a blender and after a few seconds of whizzing you'd have Yungblud (real name Dominic Harrison); now he's back with a fourth album, Idols, that will inevitably follow its predecessors to the top of the charts.
Idols is the first half of a double album, a concept first pioneered (like pretty much everything else in pop and rock) by the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix and that has grown increasingly popular among artists who rely on the thirsty internet hype-machine to make their records sell: everyone from Taylor Swift to Kendrick Lamar is at it.
It's a record that spans big, soaring melodies, angsty pop-rock ballads and even the gutsy theatrics of Queen. The album's opener, Hello Heaven, Hello, is a sprawling, nine-minute rumination on death and belonging ('So tell me / Are you gonna die in the pain that they all inflict on you / Or are you gonna swim through the storm?'); Ghosts features Yungblud's best attempt at Freddie Mercury's famed 'Ay-Oh' and culminates with a crescendo of claps, We Will Rock You-style. The latter should go down a storm with a live audience – perfect timing, considering the second edition of Harrison's very own festival, Bludfest, will take place in Milton Keynes this weekend.
A quick disclaimer: I have never really got Yungblud. The propensity for over-the-top costumes and snarling vocal delivery; the sheer spread of influences; or maybe I'm just too old – the majority of moshing fans you'll find at his raucous live shows are teenagers. On the first point, his vocals have significantly improved – though the tattoos and jet black hair remain – with his strong South Yorkshire accent peeking pleasingly through the high notes; there's an endearing vulnerability to be found, too, in the moments when Harrison's voice momentarily cracks, as on melancholy closing ballad Supermoon. He sounds more mature and assured than he did on earlier songs such as I Love You, Will You Marry Me (from his 2018 debut, 21st Century Liability) or The Freak Show, an operatic call to arms for society's weirdos and misfits from 2020 album Weird!
But overall, Idols fails to quell that second reservation: you're left wondering whether Harrison has really accepted who he is as an artist. The Greatest Parade could well be Placebo. Lovesick Lullaby sounds like Liam Gallagher howling through Slide Away. The influence of The Verve's seminal Urban Hymns is evident throughout, and proven by the fact Harrison decided to cover Bittersweet Symphony in the Radio 1 Live Lounge while on the promotional trail.
Earlier this year, the star told the Telegraph: 'Bowie, Freddie, Bono – I'm trying to reach for that'. They're all great artists to admire – but perhaps a degree of separation from his idols would help to carve out a more self-assured identity.
Poppie Platt
Also out:
Loyle Carner, Hopefully! ★★★★☆
Rap has often been unfairly marked as the music of the angry and disenfranchised, but naysayers might have to bite their tongue when it comes to Loyle Carner 's discography. The south London-raised rapper's mix of soft beats and emotional lyricism has made him stand out as a unique voice on the hip-hop scene. As the 30-year-old prepares for a headline slot on The Other Stage at Glastonbury, Carner's latest album Hopefully! combines jazzy, RnB riffs with a level of mellow self-reflection in his writing that continues to make him one of British music's most unique and poetic voices.
In his previous album Hugo, Carner tried to break away from his 'nice guy of hip-hop' persona by directly dealing with racial politics in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement – he is of Guyanese heritage. Elements of that are still present here. Notably on the titular track, he samples the late British poet Benjamin Zephaniah (a figure the artist has cited as one of his heroes), who talks of an uprising when it comes to social class and status in the black community.
But this is a more introspective work as Carner uses the LP to work through his own anxieties. The rapper, who has two young children, deals with the responsibilities of fatherhood throughout the album. On Strangers, his vocal intonation is more akin to a lullaby than the more aggressive tone of Hugo. One line from the track stands out: 'Letters escape you' works as a candid double entendre of both children learning to use and develop language, but also for the artists' personal struggles with dyslexia.
Other tracks point to broader points of his psyche. In My Mind deals with Carner's issues with self-esteem and self-image. The rapper even draws on imagery from Harry Potter as an intertextual reference point on the track Horcrux, about the reconciliation between touring and home life.
If Hugo felt more like a step forward lyrically and tonally, Hopefully! feels like a return to familiar territory. It has more in common with Yesterday's Gone, his debut album, that served as an affectionate tribute to his own mother. It felt like the work of a loving son. Now, it has come full circle, Carner has matured and Hopefully! represents the poetry of a loving father.
Ollie Macnaughton
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