HELLO YOUNG LOVERS

Hello Young Lovers was a direct followup to the band's previous release Lil' Beethoven in every sense of the word. There is a clear continuation of the themes of the previous album and most of the compositions from these two releases are easily interchangeable with one another. This is at least what I seemed to remember of this release before giving it a new spin the other day. The music that I heard was still the same but I was surprised to realize that Hello Young Lovers was not as masterful as I remembered it to be.

Just like with Lil' Beethoven, I got introduced to this album through the live performance of the entire album at exactly the same venue as last time. The only difference this time was the fact that, unlike Lil' Beethoven, Hello Young Lovers wasn't yet released here in Sweden when the band performed these songs. I remember getting my hands on a single version of Dick Around, which had a completely different feel to it compared to the studio version, but that's pretty much all I knew about this album before entering the live venue and hearing the entire performance.

The gig was just as mesmerizing as what I heard the last time and it was easy to fall in live with these songs even before hearing their studio versions. The biggest difference that Hello Young Lovers offered was a wider range of instrumental arrangements. Best example of this can be heard in the extensive use of a distorted electric guitar, which was only prominently used on one track on Lil' Beethoven.

Most of my favorite tracks come right at the end, which is in direct contrast of how things were on Lil' Beethoven, but other than that this album is a great piece of music very much worth exploring!

***** star songs: Metaphor (4:03) Waterproof (4:17) As I Sit Down To Play The Organ At The Notre Dame Cathedral (7:02)

**** star songs: Dick Around (6:35) Perfume (4:59) The Very Next Fight (5:18) (Baby, Baby) Can I Invade Your Country (5:56) Rock, Rock, Rock (5:10) Here Kitty (4:26) There's No Such Thing As Aliens (2:53)