Young Galaxy – Invisible Republic

“Our mandate for this record was: if it doesn’t make you move, it better make you cry.” According to Young Galaxy vocalist/guitarist Stephen Ramsay, this was the gauntlet that had been thrown down by him and his band mates. And although I did very little dancing and made sure to keep my crying to a minimum after my first listen, that doesn’t mean that the electronic pop quartet from Montreal failed to meet their own set of standards with their sophomore release Invisible Republic.

On the contrary, unless Ramsay literally expected listeners to be jumping up and down with tear-soaked cheeks as they rocked this album on their iPod, Invisible Republic does an okay job of mixing groovy beats with emotionally driven lyrics. While there is more of a sleepy, rainy day quality to the overall feel of this record, songs like “Long Live The Fallen World” and “Disposable Times” do carry an extra upbeat dosage of percussion. In part with these songs, the band makes a conscious effort to give this entire record more of a live, organic feel than their self-titled debut, which was primarily put together using excessive studio techniques. The result is a tighter, more intimate album that still offers plenty of interesting sounds.

Musically, what makes Young Galaxy’s sound so engaging is the the slight, but effective number of nuances in each song. This can be attributed to the fact that each of the four band members is a multi-instrumentalist, sharing the duties of keys, guitars, percussion, and programming. The song “Light Years” fades in with a beautiful blend of organ, synth, and tremolo guitar, carrying their respective riffs through the majority of the song until they flow into a memorable string arrangement. Being a guitarist myself, I personally found enjoyment in the various guitar sounds and effects: the amazing, filtered sound on the opening riff on “Destroyer”; the delayed feedback through the verses of “Queen Drum”; or the subtle warble effect on “Disposable Times.” Young Galaxy took the time to give each song identifiable components in order to make the tracks independent from one another.

While the music itself may contain brief moments of emotional appeal, what Ramsay was referring to when he said that the album “better make you cry” was the vocals. He explains how the lyrics often contrast the pain of heartache with the promise of hope: “The record is a reflection of the need for hope towards our future and an articulation of the kind of perspective we were looking to sustain in our lives, despite the inevitable hurdles.” This balance between this sort of yin and yang theme is in a way a symbol for the melodic balance between Ramsay and the other original Young Galaxy member, Catherine McCandless. McCandless and her captivating voice (think Alanis Morissette meets Sarah McLachlan) are a perfect compliment to Ramsay’s droning vocals on “Smoke and Mirror Show” and “Dreams.” Keeping with this theme, both singers express their views from various social standpoints (“Disposable Times”), but also manage to reveal deeply personal lyrics (“Firestruck”) as well.

Invisible Republic will defiantly warm the hearts of the broken-hearted and inspire hope for the hopeless. There really isn’t as much of an upbeat feel as the band claimed to have achieved, but that’s okay. The pensive lyrics and subdued rhythms of the album suit Young Galaxy well. All in all, Invisible Republic is a solid album, I’m just curious as to how it will sound live.

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Tagged as: electro-pop, montreal

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