aaamusic | On 05, Feb 2012

If you haven’t heard of Young Guns yet, when you listen to this it will most likely surprise you when you realise that they are indeed British and not American. The album has essences of American influence, with perhaps a sprinkling of Lostprophets. But when the success of your first album earns you slots alongside Lostprophets and Bon Jovi to name a couple, I’m sure it can be difficult to know where to go from there. However if you were a fan of All Our Kings are Dead you will probably be pleased to know that Bones doesn’t stray too far in style from the Young Gun’s debut. And if lively rock anthems are your thing, Bones may be just the album for you.

Bones opens with I Was Born, I Have Lived, I Will Surely Die, an exciting start providing a nice mix of the emotive and the energetic.
‘Don’t run away, take a shot, give it everything you’ve got. Without pain tell me what’s the point in glory?’

The lyrics are simple, but hopeful, making it a nice choice to open the album and Dearly Departed and Bones make nice followers; hypnotic guitar with a catchiness which very much works in their favour. Although it sometimes feels like Young Guns only have one approach to song structure and at times this can make their sound feel a little samey. It’s a shame that Hymn for All I’ve Lost is so short because it adds some variety to the album and as a fuller, more developed song it could have really added an extra dimension. And being around the half-way point in the album I feel Young Guns missed a little something here.

This album may not be a modern masterpiece of our generation, but even if it doesn’t work for you on first listen, if you give it a few more chances the catchiness will surely get to you and earn it a place on your iPod. It is what it is, rock anthems in a style that we’ve seen before and will surely see again but that is not to say it is by any means bad. If you look beneath the surface, the album has some very nice layers to it and unlike some albums of its kind, Bones manages to blend energy and emotion in an excellent fashion.

 

Rose Benge