Rockfreaks.net

A Kid Hereafter

YO!

Written by: CR on 17/10/2008 20:07:11

I'm going to start with a bold statement: A Kid Hereafter's newest album "YO!" really makes you think of a bunch of children running around on a playground without supervision, the entire album is bubbling with a childish approach to the music. You can feel the will to make music and have fun while doing it. "YO!" doesn't care about the limits set by its parent genres, and it really is a record with a mixed upbringing; pop, rock, punk, indie and even grind are all part of its DNA. When you add A Kid Hereafter to that equation you might as well give up making genre rules; If there is a restriction set by anyone A Kid Hereafter simply have to mess around with it. "Can't mix blast beats with pop-punk? I'll beg to differ!".

It is this rebellious attitude that makes an extremely diverse album which easily makes it as a competitor at the top of my album of the year chart. You got everything from the Disney worthy "The Circuits of Your Mind", which has some the most cheesy lyrics I have ever heard, to the frantic and insane prog blast "Hey I Really Like Your Band", which features what must be some of the craziest saxophone recorded in many years. In between these examples you have lots and lots of the danceable party music that really is the trademark of AKH. Though these songs fill up the majority of the album it never looses your attention because the band never stops moving and never loose their sense of direction. Even my least favorite song on the album, "Paris", fits great on the record. I grew tired of this particular song after streaming the music video a considerable amount of times before the album was released but it really gets a lift when it's put into context with the rest of the album. And it still is way better than anything released by any other danish pop act in recent years, this might just be the song that gets AKH out to a much broader (mainstream) audience. If all this isn't enough to make everyone aware of A Kid Hereafter, "YO!" also contains what every single band despite genre really needs to have; a pirate song!

The album is probably on the short side with a running time of just under 45 minutes, but with this much content in every song I don't think you would be able to put your mind into any more music than the 15 songs that make up "YO!". The only thing this album really still is in need of is for world to realize its brilliance. But with a concert at Roskilde Festival last summer, some airtime on the Danish national radio and even an interview with one of the biggest danish newspapers, AKH is definitely moving in the right direction to get the praise they really deserve.

Download: Circuits of Your Mind, Defenders of Faith, Hey I Really Like Your Band
For The Fans Of: Oh No Ono
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 10.10.2008
Iwave Records