Young Hunter Premiere “The Greatest Hits”; Playing This Week With Heavy Temple and Valley of the Sun
A couple of weeks ago, Portland, Oregon-based open-spaces-at-night heavy rockers Young Hunter released a new single called “Loudness Wars” (posted here). It was their first new material to be made public in seven years — just to save you the math: their latest and second or third (depending how you count) album, Dayhiker (review here), came out in 2017 — and an all the more exciting prospect serving double as herald for a long-player to come. The song premiering below, “The Greatest Hits,” is the B-side of a cassingle for “Loudness Wars” with cover art by the band’s own Sara Pinnell (vocals, keys, percussion), and both are something of an exclusive as neither is on the record set to release this Fall. A brief opportunity to dig in, then, and continued proof of life after a noteworthy few years’ quiet. And in the case of “The Greatest Hits” particularly, it’s also an example of the nuance with which Young Hunter have always been able to build around a central idea.
“The Greatest Hits” is relatively short at 3:39, and takes a more intense turn from “Loudness Wars,” with a foundation in a more angular procession of guitar given fluidity through Sam Dean‘s bass. Twists are established before the first verse is underway, with guitarist/vocalist
Benjamin Ford-Sala joined by the aforementioned Pinnell for a chorus that changes out the end of its last line, “Life goes on…,” to posit, “…no matter how long you’ve been on the run,” “…no matter how many songs you’ve sung,” and after the dual solo between Ford-Sala and Erik Wells is set to march by Grant Pierce‘s drums, just before the final crashes end the track intentionally stark, “…no matter how long you’ve stared at the sun.” These and another malleable lyrics in what remains a resonant hook despite the word-swapping demonstrate an attention to detail and a sense of purposeful expression that have been part of Young Hunter since the band’s outset more than a decade ago, and the somewhat melancholy point of view, depth of tone and space in the mix, and melodicism are characteristically difficult to pin to microgenre, drawing from neofolk, metal, moody indie and spacious Americana, likewise weighted in distortion and emotion.
This Thursday, Young Hunter take the stage in Portland to join the touring Heavy Temple and Valley of the Sun as part of a four-band bill (Viral Tyrant open). You might recall “Loudness Wars” came out tied to a show as well. The more the merrier. I’ll hope to have more to come as we get closer to the album’s coming out — it’s done and has been for some time, so it’s not like we’re talking about a thing before it’s made — but in the meantime you’ll find “The Greatest Hits” premiering below ahead of its release on Bandcamp and the rest of digitalia this week, and “Loudness Wars” further down the post if you want to have the side-by-side. The buy link for the tape, fresh off my email, is under the artwork. I won’t tell you how to live your life, but there’s no way it’ll be the worst eight bucks you spend today.
And please enjoy:
Young Hunter, “The Greatest Hits” track premiere
Order link: https://younghunter.bandcamp.com/album/loudness-wars
This was originally on the upcoming record we recorded with Tim Green at Louder back in 2020. After recording “Loudness Wars,” we simultaneously realized that “the Greatest Hits” kind of threw off the flow of the album, and that it was thematically a perfect counterpart to “Loudness Wars,” so we pulled it and made it the B side.
Engineered, produced, and mixed by Brandon Eggleston at Ice Cream Party Studios, Portland, Oregon 2023.
Artwork by Sara Pinnell
Layout by Christopher Walberg
Young Hunter:
Benjamin Ford-Sala – Guitar, vocals
Erik Wells – Guitar, synthesizer
Grant Pierce – Drums
Sam Dean – Bass
Sara Pinnell – Vocals, synthesizer, percussion
