Yung Beathoven is one of the more interesting acts to have emerged from the pandemic. Elusive, enigmatic and largely unidentified, they’ve been breathing life back into punk-rock with a modern twist. Think 2000’s emo rock with an electro-indie slant.
Their debut album INTERNET ROCKSTAR comes as an extensive (read 21-track) exhibition of their prolific repertoire, packed with collaborations as it navigates life, love, loss and the general languishing which comes along with being a human, and an artist, these days. Self-termed a ‘virtual musician’, their music blurs genre boundaries, offers up witty banter and errs only on the basis of sitting a little too comfortably within its niche.
Their animated persona, which litters a barrage of music videos they’ve dropped over the last two years, is the forefront personality of the album: an internet rockstar. An idea explored a little more viscerally in the rollicking, Brogan the band featuring, title track, where they unpack what digital recognition means.
Woozy, love struck sentiments shine through the punk veneer in “GOOD DAY (TO FALL IN LOVE)”, “EVERY MOMENT”, and “SUMMER LOVE” – while tracks like “BULLSHIT”, “BLOODY TEXTS” and “BETTER ALONE” navigate the flip side of adoration: heartbreak.
Cutting through the emo-rock fuzz are acoustic strains which pull through in “RUNAWAY” and “DOCTOR”, and KVSE kicks up dust with punchy production in their collabs “BUTTERFLY KNIFE” and “KISS ME”.
But it’s in the lulling moments that Yung Beathoven really shines. While his sound now sits pretty comfortably in the corner he’s carved out for it, breakneck tracks – never pushing further than three minutes a pop – get familiar. So it’s in the heartfelt pang of loss in “EULOGY”, the gritty middle finger pulled at shit going wrong in “BAD DAY” and the existential lament of “MEMENTO MORI” that keeps Yung Beathoven’s sound something to keep going back to.
Feature pic supplied by artist
