Young Culture, Better Off As Friends
Rude Records

We love a debut album, and we love pop-punk-rock-cocktails – so of course we love Young Culture, and are on tenterhooks for their self-titled debut that’s coming next month. Latest track Better Off As Friends ushers in the news with a slice of impossibly catchy riff-laden tuneage, cementing Young Culture as masters of crafting songs you just have to sing along to.

Better Off As Friends throws together groovy melodies, raucous guitars, and heart-rendingly real lyrics that pin down that exact feeling of disappointment when you realise you are, in fact, actually better off as friends. Simple narration smashed up with bitterness, melancholy, and catharsis is a recipe for success, and Young Culture have crafted it to perfection.

Young Culture are definitely aptly named, as they capture the joys and challenges of youth so skilfully. Previous singles that make the album tracklist include Holiday In Vegas, gang vocals and carefree vibes making the same kind of instant-classic of All Time Low’s tribute to Vegas on So Wrong It’s Right, and I’ll Be There. I’ll Be There seamlessly segues into a snappy bite of synth-poppy goodness that’s a guaranteed smile factory.

With a back catalogue that proves Young Culture have got banger credentials in swathes, a debut album seems long overdue. Now with just over a month to go, all that’s left to do is soak up the pop-punk goodness they’ve teased us with while we wait.

Young Culture is out October 16th.