Album Review: Kid Felix - Young Luck EP

FIVES: THE BEST WONDER YEARS SONGS
This week Lansdale, Pennsylvania’s The Wonder Years released their fourth album - ‘The Greatest Generation,’ a record that sees the pop punk quintet reach their creative peak in a number of ways. With a wealth of material in their discography, Already Heard's Sean Reid and Tom Knott took on the tricky task of picking out the five best songs from The Wonder Years. Find out what we picked and let us know if you agree or disagree?

INTERVIEW: MALLORY KNOX
Following the release of their superb 'Signals' album, Mallory Knox have certainly become ones to watch in recent months. We caught up with the band to discuss joining Search & Destroy Records, how vital the festival season and touring are, what it feels like to be a part
of the expanding British rock scene and much more.

ALREADY HEARD RECOMMENDS: OVER THE OCEAN
Over The Ocean have crafted a compelling, brooding record with their latest effort ‘Be Given To The Soil.’ With intense specific precision and delicate accuracy that echoes the likes of Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Ros. Jesse Hill from the band to discusses how the
album came together, the importance of precision, being compared to post-rock pioneers and more.

VERSUS: BRING ME THE HORIZON - 'THERE IS A HELL...' VS 'SEMPITERNAL'
After a top ten UK album and an outstanding UK tour with festival dates on both sides of the Atlantic to follow, Bring Me The Horizon are having a fantastic 2013 and are now featured in the latest edition of "Versus." It's ‘There is a Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There is a Heaven, Let’s Keep it a Secret’ vs the bands latest release, 'Sempiternal.'

ALREADY HEARD TRACK GUIDE: ALEXANDER - SAY HELLO
We catch up with Newcastle Indie Rock quartet Alexander to find out more about their debut album 'Say Hello' for a “Already Heard Track Guide” feature.

INTERVIEW: TITLE FIGHT
Having briefly returned to the UK for the Hit The Deck Festival before starting a European
tour, we caught up with vocalist/bassist Ned Russin to discuss the bands progression in sound, differences between UK and US festivals, their recent split with Touché Amoré,
having friends on tour and more.

Album Review: Kid Felix - Young Luck EP

Philadelphia-based rock band Kid Felix first gained attention after the release of their début EP ‘Head Above Water’ in November 2011 which subsequently led to them playing both Bamboozle and the prestigious Warped Tour. Any band wanting to make it can do no wrong running in those kinds of circles. New EP ‘Young Luck’ contains five tracks of slick guitar-driven pop-rock/grunge. The lyrics are well thought out and there’s a real display of skill shown by this 6-piece.

‘Alone Now’ kicks proceedings off and is awash with lush sounds; from the dainty Brand New styling of the guitar work and the subtle hints towards Minus The Bear along with the impressive rhythm work, all whilst vocalist Jake Falana croons like a young Eddy Vedder on heat. Third track ‘100 Years On’ starts off like a slowed down Muse B-side, thankfully after the first 20 seconds or so this all changes. From this track it is clear that the band are big fans of Pearl Jam, it sounds bluesy as hell. Again, a special mention must go to Falana and his impressive set of pipes. as well as his lyrics. This doesn’t sound like the kind of song you’d hear from a band in their infancy. The track is mature and even the keyboard work is fitting and adds to the overall feel of the song. It is clear a lot of thought has gone into the song writing process.

Penultimate track ‘Wait’ has us wondering whether we’re listening to an unheard Incubus track. This is certainly not a bad thing, it’s a well known fact Brandon Boyd can sing, and clearly so can Jake Falana (but we’ve mentioned that right?) Everything about this song is great! The way it builds in the chorus, the subtle rhythm work, the break down around the 3:00 minute mark and the way it erupts. This song was written for much larger stages. It benefits from the slick production work obviously, something which is evident throughout all five tracks on ‘Young Luck’.

Closing track ‘The Day After’ is a piano-led affair. Without sounding sloppy and making lazy comparisons it has an air of Something Corporate about it without being too poppy and irritating. A simple marching drum drives the track up until it completely explodes and sounds like the closing song from a blockbuster movie. It’s huge and in your face without relying on gimmicky nonsense. If you’re a fan of big hooks and guitar-driven pop-rock with more melody than you can handle, then Kid Felix should definitely be the next band you listen to. Some might say they’re 20 years too late for the whole grunge thing, but we think they may be on to something if these five tracks are anything to go by.

Overall this EP receives a well deserved 4/5. Ones to watch!

4/5

‘Young Luck’ by Kid Felix is released on 20th October through Noise Water Records.

Kid Felix links: Official Website|Facebook|Twitter

Words by Colin Henderson (@colinah87)