The ‘Young Lives’ EP is a testament to Peace Love and Gloves’ song writing capability.
Review by Callum Vickers
Blurring the lines between indie rock, brit-pop and hip-hop, Peace Love and Gloves are a band who consistently skirt around all sorts of different sounds and styles without ever letting genre restraints pin them down. This is ever so more prevalent in their new EP ‘Young Lives’, released independently on the 22nd November.
Consisting of 5 songs, ‘Young lives’ is made up of; ‘Take My Heart’, ‘Young Lives’, Hold On’, ‘Cool’ and ‘You Should Know’.
I was pleasantly surprised with this EP as there is a peculiar charm to the stripped back nature of the music in general that makes me think of past summers spent with friends, feet dangling over the river and beer in hand. I think this is in part due to the fluidity in which Peace Love and Gloves utilise so many different influences across this project.
In a way, ‘Young lives’ seems to evolve as the EP goes on. The first track ‘Take My Heart’ presents itself as an indie-pop style anthem that leads very well into ‘Young Lives’, a tune that starts with a melodic vocal harmony which lays the foundation for what I would describe as a ska inspired rap verse. The way the flow of this verse is constructed gives the track an inspiringly youthful feeling.
Next up is ‘Hold on’, if there is any song on this EP that properly captured my attention it is this one. The vocal tone of this track is a world apart from that of ‘Young Lives’. Where ‘Young Lives’ is a song about making the most of the world in your youth, ‘Hold on’ is a cry for support. The folk like style of the vocals in this tune give it an air of heaviness.
‘Cool’ and ‘You Should Know’ round out the end of the ‘Young Lives’ EP. ‘Cool’ follows a spoken word lyric style that gives the song an almost monotone feel. Now normally this would sound like a negative but when combined with the dark riffs and pounding drums that build and build and build, the vocal style adds to the suspense of the track.
Bringing the EP full circle, ‘You Should Know’ follows the same indie-pop style as ‘Take My Heart’, serving to end on a high note.
All in all the ‘Young Lives’ EP is a testament to Peace Love and Gloves’ song writing capability and a refreshing example of what can happen when bands throw together a mix match of different styles and blend them all together.
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