LUST FOR YOUTH: INTERNATIONAL
Lust For Youth- the performance pseudonym of Swedish producer Hannes Norvidde- is a moniker synonymous with dark, cavernous interpretations of sound. It would certainly be pernicious to say that his first three long-players (Solar Flare, Growing Seeds and Perfect View) were unlistenable but they definitely clung to a sense of insularity, pointed manifestations of the abrasive and the oblique. Yet, International marks a departure from oblivion and a cross-over into euphoria. At least in a musical sense.
Once exclusive to Norvidde, Lust For Youth’s fourth album is the first unveiling of a project that has evolved to encompass the talents of Copenhagen noise-pop practitioner, Loke Rahbek and guitarist, Malthe Fisher. Of course, this injection of new personnel is conceivably responsible for Lust For Youth’s expansion of sonic horizons, the break from atonal, droning loner-pop into a more wholesale party vibe.
Moving out from the murky ambience of previous records, International feels like a concerted effort to position Lust For Youth in the New Wave tradition. Referencing the moment when guitar music stopped flirting with synthesisers and quirky atmospherics (see Roxy Music) and threw itself into bed with them (pick your point between 1979 and 1985) the spectral, echoey post-punk of ‘Epoetin Alfa’ and ‘Illume’ draw similarities to Echo and the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode, whilst the remainder of the record appears to be a love letter to the fractured ebullience of New Order.
But International does more than just borrow the beats of its New Wave antecedents. As it clambers for synth-pop perfection, its vocals are an exercise in minimalism and hostility. With these inflections bereft of emotion and intensely beleaguered, the euphoria that the album trades on is deceptive. Conceptualised on ‘Born Slippy’ doppelganger, ‘Running’, it becomes apparent that Norvidde’s obsession with such euphoria is at once celebratory and cynical; the track is an anthem for the hedonists but a crash-course for the ravers. Willing participants in the club scene, the modus operandi of Lust For Youth 2.0 is to endeavour to write tunes that pack the dancefloor but maintain a wry awareness of the futility of this sweaty, often chemically-enhanced, ritual. And this philosophy is International’s ace-in-the-hole, it is a record packed with joyous, jovial rhythms that, on closer inspection, hide regret, disillusion and shame. Gloom masquerading as glory.
However, International’s biggest strength may also prove to be its greatest weakness. The songs are all immaculately produced but, after a while, their constant metronome click, pulsating rhythms and protracted wearisome expressions threaten to drive the band into the Europop middle-of-the-road. Sauntering through on waves of static noise, the record sometimes begins to drown in its own repetition and struggles to stay afloat.
Once renowned for an uncompromising industrial sound, Lust For Youth’s International lets wistful melody peer through layers of hard electronica to create a warped, dirty pop record. Like an aural iteration of the self-loathing, noxious comedown that haunts the mind and the soul after a night of decadence, Hannes Norvidde’s fourth album in as many years is a cathartic and subdued documentation of European club culture.
