Album review: Yungblud offers personal tales and a sample of The Cure  

As ever, Yungblud may split opinion somewhat with his new album 

Yungblud.  

★★★☆☆

Yungblud’s Dominic Richard Harrison is the quintessential 21st-century pop star in that he can fill arenas around the world – including in Ireland – while remaining off the radar of mainstream audiences. That may not necessarily change with his new album, a giddy but Marmite-y collection of bubblegum punk that places him at the unlikely three-way point between Diamond Dogs-era Bowie, Justin Bieber and McFly.

One reason fans respond so viscerally to his music is that he puts all of himself into his lyrics. That’s certainly true of ‘Yungblud’, where he sings about getting over his breakup with pop star Halsey and about forging a new future. He is also happy to delve into the dark side of Gen Z life. “I wanna tell you that I love you, but I just called speak,” he sings on The Funeral. “I got a f**ked-up soul and an STD.”

That unflinching quality certainly isn’t unique to Harrison. Nonetheless, on the new LP, it does feel you are at his side as he cycles through moments of angst and euphoria. It’s all enlivened by frothy indie rock that, despite the frequently unflinching lyrics, screams Saturday morning kids TV.

He is also happy to acknowledge his influences. He samples The Cure, for instance, on new single Tissues. Unfortunately, he samples the worst Robert Smith song of all time, the execrably funky Close To Me – over which Harrison weighs in with a Mid-Atlantic drawl.

You can see why Harrison commands such a devoted following (though he is a divisive figure – a quick trawl online suggests an even split between fans and haters). The fizzling, eternal perkiness is, however, an acquired taste and he lacks the everyman appeal of a more conventional troubadour such as Ed Sheeran.

That said, the last thing Yungblud’s fans would want would be for him to become just another singer-songwriter. And the very fact that his music may baffle those beyond his inner circle may well count as a positive rather than negative. 

And so it is no surprise the new record should be pitched at hardcore followers while very correctly treating the rest of the world as an irrelevance. This is their party. Whether or not you want to attend is entirely up to you.