THE UNDERGROUND YOUTH, Manchester-forged and currently Berlin-based – and can’t you so hear that city bleeding through their sound? – have today released the video for the gravel-voiced, folksy swing of “For You Are The One”; untucked collars and suits, late-night card tables and spirits, cigarette smoke and dark romance in the veins. You can watch below.
For their forthcoming new album The Falling, due March 12th on Fuzz Club Records, they’ve stepped aside just a little from the potent post-punk trade they’ve plying now across a decade-plus for a more stripped back sound, losing nothing of the night-town romance, wide eyes and kohl, lovers entwined in the shadows thing they have such a adorably dark way with.
It follows their last single from December, “A Sorrowful Race”, which you can watch the video for here and of which we said, it may have “an instrumental palette of acoustic guitars, piano, accordion and string arrangements. Don’t be fooled.”
Singer Craig Dyer says of the new single: “I wanted this bouncing, drunken, upbeat track for the record, something unlike anything I’d written before.
“The addition of the violin to the album really enhanced each and every track, but for me this one stands out as the song most affected by this change in sound.”
The band, who have a devoted following – and you can really see why – were in the middle of their first North American tour when, you know, the virus; the dates were necessarily pulled partway through. Fragmented contact from their respective Berlin apartments, caught in sudden isolation, followed.
The Falling was thus recorded between and across Craig and guitarist Leo Kaage’s apartments-turned-home-studios.
The album sees me going back to my writing approach from our earliest records, writing the demos as stripped back acoustic tracks at home,” says Craig.
“What started out as a set of romantic and deeply personal songs also took on the surrounding frustrations and feelings towards the situation we found ourselves in.
“Born from the heartbreak of how the worldwide pandemic has changed the industry we were thriving within, this album also functions as a love letter to the past.” Strong words, strong tunes.
The Underground Youth’s The Falling will be released by Fuzz Club Records on digital, cassette, CD and vinyl formats on March 12th; it’s available to pre-order from the label now.
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