Young Dreams, Between Places
Featured Album
Brimming with youthful vigor and energy
On their debut Between Places, the Norwegian collective Young Dreams rounds out a subgenre in your music collection you didn’t even know existed: well-adjusted coming-of-age anthems. As evidenced by the driving album opener “Footprints,” where the band’s multiple singers toss out vocal harmonies as though auditioning for the musical adaptation of Fight Club, Young Dreams isn’t lacking for scrappy enthusiasm, and Between Places brims with youthful vigor and energy. They’ve obviously worked their way through the Beach Boy’s catalogue, as the bucolic multi-part harmonies on “When Kisses Are Salty” attest, but they don’t merely parrot their influences. Like Vampire Weekend of Fleet Foxes, they work in a light, retro-pop style that came to prominence that came to prominence years before they were born, updating it with lyrical signifiers of modern life: cell phone chargers, drinking games, and the otherworldly quality of summer vacation. Weaving in orchestral flourishes into the mix, Young Dreams haven’t just managed to make what’s old sound fresh, they’ve created something entirely new. Who says youth is wasted on the young?
