You Me At Six, Our House (The Mess We Made)
Underdog Records
Climate change is (pardon the pun) a very hot topic right now, and throughout music, artists are coming together to throw the urgency of the issue in our faces. You Me At Six are the latest to throw their tunes in the ring with with Our House (The Mess We Made).
From the first punch of the grating, insistent bassline, YMAS have evoked the passionate, fearful, burning energy of what we’re facing. It sounds almost like a club dance beat, every note coming a fragment of a second before you expect it – it’s positively panic-inducing, raising your heart to meet the pace of the track, flooding you with drive and building through pre-choruses that suddenly drop out to isolate the “our house is on fire” refrain, all the attention on vocalist Josh Francesci’s message.
Laden with fire imagery, OH(TMWM) is YMAS’s homage to the horror of the recent Australian wildfires to which the proceeds of the track are all being donated. As well as the flames licking through the track, climate pioneer Greta Thunberg gets a nod (“when the leaders can’t lead, we all look to a Swede who speaks the most sense to me”); the prevalent message of the song though, remains a critique of those who can’t fathom the idea of community action. “Why should we care about people we have never met?” Francesci somehow croons sarcastically, before spitting out his prechorus and flinging us headfirst into his central metaphor: our house is on fire and no one cares.
Is it a tactical move of You Me At Six to make one of their poppiest tracks yet their activist mission statement? YMAS rock band credentials are still evident, no doubt about it, with intense descending guitar lines and massive builds, but the element of dark pop in the bassline and stripped-back chorus mean they’re opening themselves up to an even bigger audience – at the most crucial time for them to be reaching out.
Our House (The Mess We Made) is out now, with all proceeds going to WIRES, a charity supporting the recovery of Australian wildlife in the recent bushfires.