Alternative rock band Young the Giant, led by Sameer Gadhia, decide to keep it ‘simple’ and “Simplify” on their first new single since 2016.

They’re back – alternative band Young the Giant that is! Last we heard from the Sameer Gadhia-fronted collective, they were singing about “Jungle Youth”, a “Silvertongue”, and asserted that “Titus Was Born”. That was in 2016 with the release of Home of the Strange.  Now after nearly a two-year hiatus, Gadhia and company just want to “Simplify” things.  According to the frontman:

“Everything in modern life is complicated.  Each decision divides into possible alternatives, reflections multiplying with themselves endlessly, like a room of a thousand mirrors.  We construct images of how life should be lived: how to act, dress, tweet, and vote, and often times it is easy to lose your true self.  But love is simple…”

“Simplify” opens with some sick distorted bass and thudding kick-fueled drum groove.  Even though the sound is heavy, the record is set in a happy, major key. Love is the central idea, as Gadhia prescribed.  On the verses, he sings about the ‘complications,’ asserting on the first verse, “Everything I say only seems to complicate it / Every other fight is just another night wasted.” On the second verse, he states, “Stressing over this, stressing over that, we’re falling / Like the whole world is banging on the door I’m calling.” On the chorus, the simplification occurs, with cleaner, clearer, more enthused production work.

“Staring in your eyes, everything simplifies / Leave it all behind, everything simplifies / All we need is nothing more (when everything simplifies) / You and I need nothing more, everything simplifies.”

Final Thoughts

All in all, Young the Giant deliver a thoughtful, well-rounded record with “Simplify.” It’s not incredibly complex, nor it is game changing.  That said, it’s sufficiently conveys its message, and the music itself allures, particularly the colorful distortion and the intensity behind the backdrop.

Young the Giant • Simplify – Single • Elektra • Release: 6.15.18

Photo Credit: Elektra