Homeless "Youthful Ashes"

Homeless "Youthful Ashes" (p)2020 self-released

The third longplay of the gaditanos Homeless is another chapter in the band's own story of the constant evolution. Stylistically "Youthful Ashes" differs from "Solidos Platonicos" as much as "Solidos Platonicos" differed from "La Ciencia Lo Sabe". There's a clue to this (not 100% correct, it's just what I can consider what it looks like from the distance). The band is a part of the southernmost Andalusian bands community closely associated with the Grabaciones Sumergidas - recording studio based in El Puerto de Santa Maria - and the personalities behind it: namely, Juan Antonio Mateos (plays guitar in Homeless, fronts The Magic Mor, produces dozens of local bands including my own favorites Detergente Liquido) and Ernie Rodriguez (plays drums for The Magic Mor and Detergente Liquido as well as for Homeless right now, along with assisting Juan Antonio in production duties). So it seems like Grabaciones Sumergidas sometimes acts like a think tank, a trading post, a pool of ideas from which the musicians could drink using the pieces of those collective ideas for their own purposes.

The first major change of the pattern is pictured right on the sleeve. As the title shows, after two LPs sung completely in castellano Diego Pozo - the frontman and primary songwriter of the band - started to sing in English. The more habitual situation in the Spanish indie scene is when a band starts its career from singing in English and then converts to Spanish. “Youthful Ashes” is the opposite case. It’s neither good nor bad – just a thing worth mentioning.

While the English language is the first thing you notice when putting the record on, the advanced role of synths is the second. There is a pair of songs in the middle of the album ("Breaking Up" and "The Trip") where the synths take leading role to make them sound so new wavey you could feel like going back to the 80's. However, for the most of the tracks Linda Guilala-esque synths, fragile-sounding (please don't confuse it with 'thin' – ‘fragile’ is good, ‘thin’ is mostly not) guitars and crispy clean sound of Slowdive's "Souvlaki" are the main sonic dominants. Despite the mention of both Linda Guilala and Slowdive in one phrase, only minor dreampop influence is detected. Melodically the album pays more debt to post-millennial 'non-aligned' British rock acts - for example, "Behind Us" sounds like amalgam of IAMX and The Cooper Temple Clause. It also reminds me of the last year's magnificent "In Search Of The Miraculous" by Desperate Journalist. It's not about any direct comparisons - it rather feels like when listetning to both records I get more or less the same emotions. And just like "In Search Of The Miraculous", "Youthful Ashes" is another strongest contender to compete for the year’s end pole position.

BNDCMP