I have one word to describe this album: unconventional.
I first got into You Me At Six’s music with their fourth studio album, Cavalier Youth, specifically the song, ‘Cold Night’, which is still a tonic to listen to up to this day.
Their seventh studio album is just as good, if not better. It is unconventional in the mix of sounds they have created and how they meld so well together. Additionally, despite loving You Me At Six, their new album is not something that I would usually listen to with a predominantly heavy-rock soundtrack, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed SUCKAPUNCH.
The album opens with ‘Nice To Me’, a song of heavy metal type beats which are slightly off-putting but overall an enjoyable way to open. The album alternates between the 11 tracks on SUCKAPUNCH with heavy metal beats and then soothing indie songs giving a rising and falling sensation to the listening experience. It can also give a somewhat jarring listening experience, for example at the end of Track 2 entitled, ‘MAKEMEFEELALIVE’ the ending is so abrupt – and frankly horrible – that it really juxtaposes the opening of Track 3, ‘Beautiful Way’ (perhaps my favourite track of the album) which is a wistful, yet painful and strong love ballad.
Halfway through the album with the introduction of Track 5 and the title track, ‘Sukapunch’, shows that the album is a real mix bag of songs with a compilation of dance beats, heavy metal and slow love melodies. The mix of high and low tempos work at times, but with tracks like ‘MAKEMEFEELALIVE’ and ‘Voicenotes’ the impact of this changing tempo significantly impacts the potential of the album – ‘Voicenotes’ is perhaps my least favourite song on the album.
Whilst this review may not be ranting and raving about You Me At Six, it is still an album worth listening to, and over the course of an afternoon it was enjoyable – it just was not my favourite
