True to its title, this new single from New Zealand band the Naked and Famous is a veritable toast to youth. The driving synth bass holds the song steady as Alisa Xayalith unleashes her frantic vocals, which ring with the teetering whirl of angst and wonderment. “The mood it changes like the wind, hard to control when it begins,” she sings of teenage naïveté. Halfway through the track, the bright melody drops out, leaving a rounded drumbeat to accompany the whispered, melancholy bridge: “As it withers, brittle it shakes/Can you whisper, as it crumbles and breaks/As you shiver, count up all your mistakes.” The Naked and Famous’ meld of chilled-out instrumentation and frenetic vocals sounds worn and wide-eyed at the same time, and that combination could take these indie newcomers very far.
