Customer Reviews

Young Forever

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought the CD based on a very casual listen in a CD store and have grown to love just about every song. The songs ooze originality, blending good humour with light, simple-sounding arrangements. While unlikely to get a great deal of commercial airplay, the music is a joy to listen to; fresh and uplifting. There is a little bit of cajun Scottish-style, mixed in with alt-folk/pop. The instrumentation and harmonies are terrific.

Song highlights for me are Heliopolis by Night, Tie One On and my favourite, Summer's Gone.

Please give this a listen and support a great young band.

What a great album. I don't think there's a bad song on this album. The band uses all kinds of different instrumentation from bells, to xylophones, to violins to primitive electronic keyboards. The music is simple, but well developed. There is surprising variety from one song to the next. Each song is a little bit different and the sound doesn't get old by the end of the album as so often happens. The music itself is fresh and original. My favorites are probably: "Vegetarian Restaurant" and "Helopolis by Night", "Summer's Gone", and "Don't Slow me Down".

I don't write many reviews on here, but this one was worth mentioning. Highly recommended.

You could take the music on this record at least two ways. First, imagine you have just had a conversation with a stranger and realized that you have just met perhaps the nicest person living. That's one way to take it, the second is as an hysterically funny, darkly sarcastic soundtrack for the purely cynical. In fact, you may be able to achieve both states of mind -just by listening to the music long enough. Which is sort of like getting two for the price of one...

This band from Edinburgh, Scotland is an utter delight. While the CD cover of amorous lions might raise a few eyebrows, the sound is quite a delight. Fans of bands Thrills & Beulah will find things to love. I have 3 favorites on the CD. "Love Is An Arrow" is a happy tune that brings to mind the sunny disposition of the Hollies with an addictive melody. "Tie One On" is another delightful track that sounds positively sunny although the lyric is about a brokenhearted lover, "The love we had that once was cherished is perished." "Slow Me Down" is currently in my own personal top ten with its throbbing beat that sets your toe tapping and puts a smile on your face, "I'm an open book, but you can take a look." The rest of the tracks on "Young Forever" are also strong with no clinkers. "What You Do" is dreamy and wistful while "Heliopolis By Night" bounces joyfully at a manic pace. Aberfeldy's disc is a wonderful joy, light & airy, sunny & bright. Enjoy!

Every time I listen to Aberfeldy's Young Forever I want to write a gushing review telling the world what they're missing, which is possibly the best, most amazing record of my lifetime....so for about the two-hundredth time, here it goes.

So you might see on Amazon or Allmusic that this record is being put into the twee-pop and chamber pop genres. On first glance Aberfeldy may just seem like another band out to copy the magic of the great 60's pop innovators like Phil Spector and his 'wall of sound' or the genius of Leiber & Stoller. Their music spawned an era of music that was like no other, putting bands like the Beach Boys and countless girl-groups like The Ronettes and The Exciters at the heart of everybody that either wanted to play pop music or just enjoyed being taken away by its innocence, often campy, soulful sound. There are thousands of bands who've been inspired by it, most of them nowhere near creating a similar vibe, so why should Aberfeldy be any different?

What people seem to forget about producers like Phil Spector and Leiber & Stoller is that their music made you generally happier than you were before you started listening. Whether the message was sad or bitter, jovial or revengeful, it made quiet people who didn't dance, want to get up and tryout for a show tune. Though it remained simple, it was the uniqueness of the composition and the originality that made it different. Since that era of music has ended, no band has recreated the same feeling. Sure some bands have copied the sound exactly, not introducing an ounce of originality, but we both know that's not the same thing, at all. The majority of music being classified as twee or chamber pop and influenced by Spector, while sometimes interesting, is usually pretty boring and can put you fast sleep. The campiness is gone. The innocence is gone. The dance factor, nowhere in sight; and the quirkiness is out the door. The happiness that you get from the gleeful pop is a mere memory. Nowhere will you find a myriad of instruments, ranging from bells, Bodhran drums, lap steel guitars, guitarros, trombones, fiddle, glockenspiel, organ, piano along with your basic instruments and beautiful boy-girl harmonies, all on the same record, and all on the majority of the tracks, and most importantly, all cleanly composed and played by a virtuoso of Spector's teachings ......until now.

Meet Aberfeldy, a five-piece boy-girl band from Edinburgh, Scotland. The prodigy behind it all is lead-singer, writer, and guitarist Riley Briggs. On Young Forever, Aberfeldy recreate a seventeenth century Renaissance sound, especially with their use of the guitarros and glockenspiel, and update it, a feat very appropriate considering what a rejuvenation of pop music this record is. Riley Briggs is able to take themes ranging from space abduction to eternal youthfulness and put clever lyrics to them atop that reincarnated wall of sound. In addition, Young Forever fully lives up to its title in that it successfully captures an essence of youth not only in their bouncy musical compositions but in their sweet, innocent lyrics as well. Young Forever overflows with twelve un-skippable songs of sunshine and smiling faces, of young love and heart-tingling field-trip escapades to the chocolate factory.

But don't get me wrong, this is not just a sugary, substance-free band like the 1960's group, 1910 Fruitgum Company that wrote songs about bubble-gum and board games. Though they capture innocence in a similar way, Aberfeldy's genius again comes out in their ability to link that childish innocence with their more `adult' song themes of true love and relationship-induced inebriation. Aberfeldy takes the simple, fundamental, sometimes irrational, mindset of youth and writes a witty, romantic, and sometimes outright campy record, that rivals anything in pop music history. Its wittiness shines in absolutely every song, but in particular on the song "Love Is an Arrow" when Briggs sings: "Love is a verb and a noun as well / You find it in a dictionary under 'L' / They give you a description to spell it out / But they don't say what it's all about... Love is a good way to lose a friend / It's a two-faced liar that you can't defend / Love is a force that invades your heart / It starts to take it all apart." Clever, but not in a brooding or pretentious tone, instead it just makes you smile and be happy; and that's the case for the whole thirty-eight minutes of Young Forever-happiness.
-Eddie Hall

I'm surprised there aren't more reviews of this great album. For shorthand reference, if you like Belle & Sebastian then you'll almost surely like Aberfeldy. Both are sparse, authentic with strong lyrics and an artistic vulnerability that makes them feel intimate to listen to. It's breezy and youthful without being precious. Give a listen. Aberfeldy may become your favorite band.

First of all I wish there was 1/2 stars rating, for it certainly deserves a 4.5 rating. 5 stars is perfection and this one comes so close it is not even funny. Talk about sunny, vibrant and beatiful songs and you have Aberfeldy's "Young Forever" in a nutshell. If anything, it is too bright of an album, with clear precise emotions that can and will move the listener sooner or later (most of the time sooner)and their musicality is just divine. What a band! This is the first album I ever owned by this group and immediately has become a treasured CD. Yes, there are countless bands out there filled with conflict, anger, desolation, you name it, but rare is the group who's sole intention is to bring a joyful experience to the listener. Call me naive, simplistic but I still remember the days when America was singing "Lonely People", "Daisy Jane", "Tin Man" and so many beatiful songs. Songs that convey a delicate balance between emotion and dreams of what if. Aberfeldy is a treat. Like a strawberry sundae with extra whipped cream, like a peach on a golden summer day. You can not go wrong with this one and it is my pleasure and hope that more and more people realizes that in essence this kind of Cd is just "what the doctor ordered". It certainly takes a lot of talent to pull a CD of this quality and Aberfeldy surprisingly did so for me. 4.5 stars (but so close to 5 it is that good!) Enjoy, my worthy and kind earthlings!

A completely different sound then Scot counterparts B&S, and excellent in a different sort of way. Great songs all around. Some acoustic, some electricky, some rocky, all blend to make one of the best albums Ive heard all year, aside from the somewhat gratuitous cover art, thats a bit much.

Someone mentioned Belle and Sebastian in another review here, but, no -- Aberfeldy are INFINITELY more interesting. These songs amaze and delight any fan of what we used to call pop music -- i.e., rock-based but melodic and well-arranged. I'm 57 years old and I can't say enough about the musical pleasure this album has given me. The melodies, the hooks, the vocals, the loopy instrumentation, the REALNESS of it -- what a refreshing delight. At this point, I am completely in love with "Love Is An Arrow," "Summer's Gone," and "Surly Girl," but every cut is a jewel. As I told an old friend, "Get this album, and after you play it three times you may very well decide it's the best thing you ever heard."

People typically give reviews for products they either intensely love or intensely hate.

I love this CD. The music is tasteful, the lyrics are beautiful and witty. As a previous reviewer noted, it really grows on you. Great stuff. . . I hope for more from this group.