The Sun – Blame It On The Youth

This Is The Dawning…

The Sun is employing a bold strategy in the release of its first major label album Blame It On The Youth. The album is being released only on DVD with the music embedded as WAV files and a video for each of the album’s fourteen songs. It’s not the first time a band has allowed fans to copy songs legally without recourse. It is, however, the first time a major label (Warner Bros. Records) has officially sanctioned such copying. With such fear from the bigger facets of the music industry of piracy it is commendable of the group and the label to bravely venture into an attempt to advance the record release medium.The real story is the music, a refreshingly diverse mix spanning multiple genres, tempos and melodic phrasings. Blame It On The Youth opens with happy alternative rock on “Must Be You” then continues with a splash of slow-tempo light-keyboards that startlingly switches to hives-style punk rock on “Say Goodbye.” The latter of which is beautiful and scary at the same time. The band employs thrash acoustics on the frantic “2B4” and then follows up with a surefire radio hit “Lost At Home” featuring alternating verse/chorus vocals from singer/guitar player Chris Burney and drummer Sam Brown. “Lost” takes solid advantage of staccato clean guitar, two distinct vocal timbres and a killer melody. Later “Taking the Lords Name In Vein” rocks with an industrial backbeat and echoplexed vocals.

Is the Sun’s use of these new playback formats a clever artistic endeavor or a mere marketing ploy? Those that use the same bravery The Sun did in pursuing such an endeavor, may be pleasantly surprised.