Sydney, Australia’s Gang of Youths made a splash with its 2017 full-length Go Farther in Lightness. David Le’aupepe, the group’s singer and songwriter, writes brilliantly about the ravages of time and the effects of social isolation throughout Go Farther in Lightness, which last year earned three major Australian Record Industry Awards, including one for the year’s best album. The band’s command of various dream-pop and rock styles is perhaps most evident on the record’s “Do Not Let Your Spirit Wane,” which doesn’t wane over the course of seven minutes. Le’aupepe has a knack for narrative and a feel for the ways melancholy can color life’s happiest moments. He pulls off a song titled “Our Life Is Short,” which recognizes transience without sentimentalizing our common fate. Go Farther is a remarkable record — Le’aupepe writes about his pain in ways that honor both the personal and the political. EDD HURT
Gang of Youths
