This four-track EP by French band Youth Avoiders is a lesson in how to get in, do your stuff (and do it well) and get out. Youth Avoiders manage to do this in eight minutes and hammer away with an abandon that doesn't do anything to detract from the songs, with everything including the kitchen sink being thrown in.
All four songs are extremely upbeat in pace, with a guitar sound that jangles more than it does sound like a buzzsawâif anything the sound of the guitar is reminiscent of that employed in White Lung. The drumming is frenetic and to be honest, I know there is some bass in there but it plays more of a holding role than being prominent in any way. That being said, the rhythm section does a grand job of keeping this runaway train on track.
First track "Run" is notable for including "regress no way" in the lyrics but this is no 7 Seconds sound-alike band as the song crashes along with more of a thrashy garage sound than a thick melodic punk one. "Boredom Airline" is basically about a plane crashing into the sea and again is performed at 100 mph, whilst "Red Eyes" is the track that sticks the most in my head with a yelled vocal that sounds desperate to the extreme. It is also the longest track on the single and just has a great sense of urgency to it which helps to mark it out over the three other songs. Next comes "Outro," which seems as if it is almost a Youth Avoiders theme song with the only decipherable words being "youth" and "avoiders," with the third and final word possibly being "yeah" or something along those lines. It's fast, frantic and final.
This kind of release would be equally at home on labels like Dirt Cult Records and Deranged Records so if you like the stuff they put out then this might tickle your fancy too. Youth Avoiders are also a band that needs to release an album of this stuff.