{"id":35467,"date":"2018-03-01T22:01:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T22:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:03:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:03:02","slug":"review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Cold Years &#8211; Northern Blue EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg\" width=\"250em\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s <i>\u2018Death Chasers\u2019<\/i>, Aberdeen quartet <b>Cold Years<\/b> have returned for a third outing in the form of <i>&#8216;Northern Blue\u2019<\/i>. On the aforementioned <i>&#8216;Death Chases\u2019<\/i>, they founded a brand of Americana-tinged melodic rock with Ross Gordon\u2019s weathered tongue serving as the band\u2019s storyteller. For the most part, <i>&#8216;Northern Blue\u2019<\/i> follows a similar route yet still leaves you playing it repeatedly.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Seasons\u2019<\/i> kicks off the EP in a spirited fashion. Hushed guitars allow Gordon\u2019s words to take centre stage before giving way to a brash, addictive chorus with rousing guitars. Despite its somewhat downtrodden lyrics (<i>\u201cI thought I\u2019d never lose you this way\u201d<\/i>), it\u2019s a bright opener.<\/p>\n<p><!-- more --><\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Miss You To Death\u2019<\/i> keeps the momentum going with stringent guitars, big \u201cwoah\u201d\u2019s and its nostalgic lyrical tone. The former is a trait that threads these four songs together. On <i>&#8216;What I Lost\u2019<\/i>, <b>Cold Years<\/b> take a more reserved approach as plucky guitars and steady drums serve as the backdrop to a tale of haunted memories and carefree youth.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, <i>&#8216;Final Cut\u2019<\/i> rounds off this all too short outing in an admirable fashion. It\u2019s gradual build led by just Gordon\u2019s soulful voice and guitar highlights his ability to subtly grab your attention. While the flourishing pay off in the final third truly sends the EP home on a high, with it\u2019s thick drums and riveting guitar solo.<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Northern Blue\u2019<\/i> is tinged with mournful lyricism, although musically <b>Cold Years<\/b> deliver a sense of optimism on these four songs. They embrace the anthemic, blue-collar rock trait that has seen them repeatedly be compared to a handful of Stateside acts. Even though they\u2019ve not quite shaken off those comparisons here, <b>Cold Years<\/b> have shown they are more than imitators. Gordon\u2019s heartfelt songwriting and passionate delivery, alongside the band\u2019s brand of melodic rock, makes for a satisfying listen. The only question left to ask is; can they be as efficient on a full-length?<\/p>\n<p>4.5\/5<\/p>\n<p><i>&#8216;Northern Blue\u2019<\/i> EP by <b>Cold Years<\/b> is out now on <b>Homebound Records<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Cold Years<\/b> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/coldyearsband\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/coldyearsband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/coldyears.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by S\u00eaan Reid (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SeanReid86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@SeanReid86<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s \u2018Death Chasers\u2019, Aberdeen quartet Cold Years have returned for a third outing in the form of &#8216;Northern Blue\u2019. On the aforementioned &#8216;Death Chases\u2019, they founded a brand of Americana-tinged melodic rock with Ross Gordon\u2019s weathered tongue serving as the band\u2019s storyteller. For the most part, &#8216;Northern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,345,14989,14988,12398],"class_list":["post-35467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-cold-years","tag-homebound-records","tag-northern-blue","tag-sean-reid"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: Cold Years - Northern Blue EP - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s \u2018Death Chasers\u2019, Aberdeen quartet Cold Years have returned for a third outing in the form of &#039;Northern Blue\u2019.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: Cold Years - Northern Blue EP - Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s \u2018Death Chasers\u2019, Aberdeen quartet Cold Years have returned for a third outing in the form of &#039;Northern Blue\u2019.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Already Heard Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seanreidportfolio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-01T22:01:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-21T22:03:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1240\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"S\u00eaan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@alreadyhearduk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"S\u00eaan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: Cold Years - Northern Blue EP - Already Heard Staging","description":"Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s \u2018Death Chasers\u2019, Aberdeen quartet Cold Years have returned for a third outing in the form of 'Northern Blue\u2019.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: Cold Years - Northern Blue EP - Already Heard Staging","og_description":"Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s \u2018Death Chasers\u2019, Aberdeen quartet Cold Years have returned for a third outing in the form of 'Northern Blue\u2019.","og_url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/","og_site_name":"Already Heard Staging","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seanreidportfolio","article_published_time":"2018-03-01T22:01:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-21T22:03:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1240,"height":1240,"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"S\u00eaan Reid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_site":"@alreadyhearduk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"S\u00eaan Reid","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/"},"author":{"name":"S\u00eaan Reid","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/484dc00e54dea89663d06cb624a70cd9"},"headline":"Review: Cold Years &#8211; Northern Blue EP","datePublished":"2018-03-01T22:01:36+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-21T22:03:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/"},"wordCount":365,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg","keywords":["Album Reviews","Cold Years","Homebound Records","Northern Blue","Sean Reid"],"articleSection":["Album Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/","name":"Review: Cold Years - Northern Blue EP - Already Heard Staging","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg","datePublished":"2018-03-01T22:01:36+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-21T22:03:02+00:00","description":"Having made a fair bit of noise with 2016\u2019s \u2018Death Chasers\u2019, Aberdeen quartet Cold Years have returned for a third outing in the form of 'Northern Blue\u2019.","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-cold-years-northern-blue-ep\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/tumblr_oczgq9lfGb1r8no6so3_r139_1280.jpg","width":1240,"height":1240},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","name":"Already Heard Staging","description":"Covering the best in alternative music as best as we can","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#organization","name":"Already Heard","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/AH-relaunch-logo-white-bg.jpg","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"Already Heard"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AlreadyHeard\/","https:\/\/x.com\/alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alreadyheard\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/already-heard\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AlreadyHeardMusic","https:\/\/tiktok.com\/@alreadyhearduk","https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@alreadyheard"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/484dc00e54dea89663d06cb624a70cd9","name":"S\u00eaan Reid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef81976bb8e011af71a662b656189e99562e2fa47bb3928dfb824b97e133334e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef81976bb8e011af71a662b656189e99562e2fa47bb3928dfb824b97e133334e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ef81976bb8e011af71a662b656189e99562e2fa47bb3928dfb824b97e133334e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"S\u00eaan Reid"},"description":"Based in Nottinghamshire, S\u00eaan Reid is the Founder and Senior Editor of Already Heard. Since 2008, he has been writing about a variety of bands from around the world for numerous publications. Away from music, S\u00eaan has several interests, most notably watching wrestling and football. You can find S\u00eaan on the following: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram","sameAs":["https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/seanreidportfolio","seanreid86"],"url":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/author\/sean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35467"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35616,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35467\/revisions\/35616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}