Alternative band Young the Giant is back with a new album titled Mind Over Matter, which was released on January 21st, 2014.
“This record is kind of like chronicling our battles in the last couple of years,” says Sameer Gadhia in the “Young the Giant: The Making Of Mind Over Matter” video.
Said battles can be heard loud and clear on this album, with its bittersweet and triumphant sounding instrumentals. Coupled with Gadhia’s vocals, which have very distinct story-telling quality to them, Mind Over Matter easily becomes an album to fall in love with.
The intro to the album is a 48 second track titled “Slow Dive” which features a beautiful crescendo of soft violins and bell sounding instruments.
“It’s About Time” and “Crystallized” are currently the two singles on the album. While “Crystallized” is very somber with slow guitar, piano, and synth melodies, “It’s About Time” is very loud, fast paced, and danceable with strong electric guitar and drum beats.
“Teachers” is another fast paced song on the album with similar qualities to “It’s About Time.”
“Firelight,” “Camera,” “Waves,” and “Paralysis” are the tear inducing ballads on this album. “Camera” is particularly interesting because of the abrupt beat change at around 1:20.
The tracks I loved the most on this album were the ones with striking lyrics, those being “Anagram,” “Mind Over Matter,” “Daydreamer,” “In My Home” and “Eros.”
The chorus in “Anagram” is simply genius. The song is about a guy who just wishes he could figure out the meaning of his relationship with the person who’s playing games with his heart. The first part of the chorus goes,
Anagram
I’m just a messenger man
It’s the last time around
One of these days I wish you were
A hologram […]
It’s as if the relationship itself is a scrambled word play that he can’t figure out. Even though this seems like something one would be upset about, the medium tempo of the chorus makes it sound playful, adding to the anagram word play aspect of the song.
“Mind Over Matter,” the song the album is named after, is my absolute favorite on the album. I love the second half of the chorus where Gadhia sings “And when the seasons change / Will you stand by me? /’Cause I’m a young man built to fall.” After that last line he let’s out a beautiful falsetto “oooh,” which makes my heart melt with all the vulnerability packed in this one song.
“Eros,” which I would assume is named after the Greek god of love, is filled with vivid imagery, my favorite being the line “I want to dance, and I’m not dancing alone.”
“In My Home,” comes across as a powerful anthem, especially where Gadhia sings “Well, I know I was born for this / Every night I dreamt of it.” The song is a wonderful rendition of self-realization and empowerment.
And the last of my favorites, “Daydreamer” I love for two reasons, one being that I am the biggest daydreamer and the second the song’s heartfelt lyrics. “For you I would steal time,” is the one line of the song that resonates with me.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mind Over Matter. It’s melodies are very soft and soothing, give or take a few tracks. There’s something very relatable about this album, which can potentially draw a lot of listeners to it.
