Albums of the Year # 46 Young Guv - Guv IV

 

I'm a sucker for a certain kind of jingle jangle morning sound really, whether it's rooted in 1966, '76' or '86 . I know all about it's wistfulness, it's wanness, or if you prefer, uts essential limp wristed wetness. Although I'm no completist, and could certainly not listen solely to music of this sort, when I come across  a good example of this kind of record, which I tend to every few months, I really couldn't be more delighted. 

And this is certainly a very, good example of this particular kind of record. It has such precisional, mastery of the requirements of the sub genre I'm talking about that it pretty much  feels like it was cooked up in a scientific laboratory.

It's the fourth album from Young Guv, essentially the brainchild and inamorata of American Ben Cook. Generally holed up in New Mexico it's no stretch to guess what you'd imagine would be the records Cook places at the front of his record stacks. I'd go for 5D and Younger Than Yesterday, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip and Stone Roses.

But more than anything it's clear that above all he venerates the new dawn purity, and wonder of the mid-Sixties. Young Guv IV practically radiates it. Every track glows with virgin wonder. The guitar lines are crystalline. The vocals adopt the unaffected inocence of Michael Quercio of The 3 O'Clock, Ian Broudie, Richie Furay or Syd Barrett. Everything is perfectly crafted with the end result in mind.

To pull off a venture like this you're going to require a certain steely quality and a very, very good set of songs. Because ultimately you're setting yourself up against the likes of The Beatles, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, The Monkees,  and The Turtles. Among the best there've ever been. Cook clearly has both in spades. To such a degree that this feels like far more than an exercise in nostalgic pastiche even though it is perfectly evident where it takes its inspiration from. A magical record.