Young Gun Silver Fox are one of the better acts doing modern West Coast while keeping their feet cool in that backyard pool located in good ol’ El-Lay, even if they are based in London.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Young Gun Silver Fox
ALBUM: Canyons
LABEL: Légère Recordings
SERIAL: LEGO188
YEAR: 2020
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: England
LINEUP: Andy Platts – vocals, all instruments * Shawn Lee – vocals, all instruments
TRACK LISTING: 01 Kids * 02 Who Needs Words * 03 Baby Girl * 04 Dream Woman * 05 Long Distance Love Affair * 06 Danny Jamaica * 07 Just For Kicks * 08 Private Paradise * 09 Things We Left Unsaid * 10 All This Love
RATING: 85/100
WEBLINKS: Andy’s Site | Shawn’s Site
Background
We’ve mentioned this London based duo Young Gun Silver Fox previously at Glory Daze, but never really went beyond that. A travesty, as this pairing is blowing away all the typical rainy day blues that the UK can offer and replaces it with sunny blue skies and a gentle coastal breeze all the way from California. Musically speaking that is.
This is the third album from Young Gun Silver Fox, plus they’ve released three EP’s as well. The music is steeped in the 70’s and 80’s, fusing West Coast and Pop together quite nicely. When you hear it you’ll be drawing on all the references you were bought up with from decades ago. What one person hears means that someone else will hear it differently.
The Songs
The whole thing is as cool as a cucumber, and if you enjoyed previous Glory Daze reviewed acts such as Los Colognes, State Cows and The Sutcliffe Brothers, then you’ve stopped off at the right article.
When listening to ‘Kids’ I was immediately drawn in to its ear candy melody, evoking all those fun childhood memories we all experienced decades ago as kids. A good summer listen. Brass parts makes an appearance on ‘Who Needs Words’, this is definitely in the style of Japanese City Pop which was recently featured here at Glory Daze.
The simple structure of ‘Baby Girl’ reinforces the notion that music doesn’t need to be overly complex to be effective. It has a very R&B groove drifting through it. ‘Dream Woman’ is more of a pop excursion with loads of parpy brass work.
‘Long Distance Love Affair’ is as mellow as the song title suggests. Again, the Japanese references to City Pop, even the lyric ‘touching down in Tokyo’ confirms we are definitely in the zone.
‘Danny Jamaica’ is the album’s bouncy moment, though the midsection does stall for a couple of seconds before setting off again. By the way, there’s no reggae involved here. ‘Just For Kicks’ is the slow groover with equal portions of happy brass and soul/R&B backing vocals.
I also enjoyed the bubbly pop of ‘Private Paradise’ with its buoyant energy keeping it well afloat, while the mid cruise of ‘Things We Left Unsaid’ is held together by an uncomplicated arrangement, a ringing guitar melody and some well placed/timed lead and backing vocals. The album winds down nicely with the piano driven ballad ‘All This Love’.
In Summary
This is one of the better acts doing modern West Coast while keeping their feet cool in that backyard pool located in good ol’ El-Lay. I remember hearing some snippets from this album last year but it’s taken me this long to revisit it. I doubt I’ll get caught out like that again. I’ll be regularly checking in on them. Time to check out the Young Gun Silver Fox back catalogue, and so should you.
Video
Kids
Who Needs Words
