Originally published in NME 21.04.10
It’s a very meagre throng that assembles for the opening night of Your Twenties’ tour, and a meek one at that. There will be no crowdsurfing, brawling or hurling of skull-cracking bottles this evening. In spite of this though, the London four piece could really do with a paramedic on the scene to prepare for the inevitable moment when their startlingly chiselled frontman Gabriel Stebbing over-pouts and postures his way to a hernia. He formerly of Metronomy fame struts as though he were mainlining Jarvis – that deliciously spindly, British strain of camp, complete with knacker-pinchingly high falsetto at points. It’s trooping the colour on excellent former single ‘Billionaires’, which channels of Montreal warring with Hall & Oates. They’re mousetrap sharp and gawky on ‘Sugar The Pill’, before the very aptly titled ‘Euphoria’ makes like Everything Everything on the cusp of being strung out on sedatives. A change of mood is something Your Twenties would do well to practise though. Their entire set charges at a breathless four to the floor stampede, meaning that by the time ‘Every Night’ and its leaping eunuch tones appear, déjà vu’s starting to set in. Luckily, theirs is the kind of charm you won’t mind living through more than once.
Laura Snapes
