Diamond Youth – Shake

Diamond Youth has strongly defined itself as a frontrunner for catchy and uncompromising alt/rock over its past few releases.  The Baltimore four-piece continues to push out a steady stream of EPs that teases the future prospect of a full length.  The latest effort, Shake, comes six songs strong and serves as the band’s most defined, cohesive, and even experimental to date.

Immediately clear, Diamond Youth is favouring a harder, grittier approach this time around.  The guitars are abuzz at meatier volumes, tuning into a crunchy, slightly distorted bass ceiling in opener “Red Water.”  Combined with Justin Gilman’s skillful vibrato, the song’s hooks land quick and confident.  Where the band once took a one or the other approach, they now integrate and disperse their softer tones into the underlying music rather than defining tracks as hard or soft.  The result heightens vocal comparisons of songs like “Warm Scene” to Muse although with a slightly gungier edge.

Unlike Diamond Youth’s past EPs, Shake’s two outliers, “Don’t Feel Real” and “Maryland Ice Cream,” add to rather than alter the overall framework.  “Don’t Feel Real” feeds off a reduced tempo that draws the listener nearer like a friend leaning in close to share an intimate secret.  “Maryland Ice Cream” on the other hand gets quick and dirty for all forty-nine seconds of its sloppy garage punk clamor.  Both fit in well alongside natural radio-ready singles like “Can’t Shake The Feelings.”

There isn’t a bad song on Shake, and with their third effort Diamond Youth have shown that they know the ins and outs of writing a well-balanced EP.  Fans of 90’s alt/rock stand to gain a lot from Shake even if it’s a relatively safe listen.  The tunes are catchy for all the right reasons and while there aren’t a lot of new tricks in Diamond Youth’s bag, the ones they pull out are energizing and entertaining.