Torture the old? Wrong band.
Do young people grow up too quickly in these modern times of ours? Are we old before our time? Are we all - as Private Frazer longed to inform us in his booming Scottish accent - "doomed"?
Kill The Young are basically the Gorman trio. Tom struts his stuff with superb vocals, while playing a mean ditty on lead guitar. Dylan makes his presence felt on bass and Olly completes the picture on bass and backing vocals. Origin of Illness has a frenetic pace and the basic sound - the core of the music - is indie vocals mixed with the same reliance on the guitar of many a rock genius. Origin of Illness is a good song. But you won’t for one minute buy all this talk of doom, disaster and death. Sure, young people are mistreated in society, but they are also the ones throwing the petrol bombs under the cover of urban darkness. There are two sides to every coin and you can’t launch a music career on such a limited, restrained manifesto. If you want to be political, stand up and present yourself at the hustings. If you want to be vague, follow the example of Kill The Young.
The b-side Fragile is tepid and, as a listener, one never quite escapes the feeling that we have all been here before and this particular music is simply re-treading well worn ground. A more pressing question is who exactly violated the sanctuary of the over 70’s keep-fit class to take the single cover’s front and back photos? If your granny can be seen in the distance on the back cover of this single release, then you might just make money out of personal appearances.
It is time to face facts. Kill The Young will be applauded by one of the indie music bibles. They will be famous. To me, their lyrics sound like - as Thea Gilmore espoused so long ago - sixth-form poetry scrawled on the wall of your old bedroom. High marks for effort, slightly less for achievement.