REVIEW: Lynskey - here, this is for you

North-West duo Lynskey are serving chaos-core realness in their 3rd EP 'here, this is for you', by combining markers of heavy genres from metalcore to hardcore punk. Full of tongue-in-cheek lyrics from B Murray and Saul Gerrard, and sprinkled with raw honesty, if this is the example of their sound to a tee then it's well worth the listen.

The album opens with 'KiCKiT', jump-scaring the listener with the opening riff and some rap singing reminiscent of the nu metal in the middle of its resurgence, but settles into a surround-sound punk style that gets the head bopping. Though its components sound a little blocky, they come into their stride as ‘You Got the Scatterbrain, Perk’ starts playing. Offering more emo conventions with its beautiful melody and heartfelt lyrics, it sounds like a blend of 'You Brought Me Your Bullets, I Gave you My Love' and 'Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge' by My Chemical Romance, then finishes with a faultless breakdown. Don’t worry B, the blegh is not too much.

Next song up is 'Something Somewhere Else in 5_4', carrying on the emo vibe with a metalcore sound sprinkled in. Lynskey has created a sound that is fast paced while having a slowed down melody which is impressive in of itself, but after this the listener is treated to highlight: 'Keanu'. This song is the easy standout of 'here, this is for you' - it feels like a gift on listening. B shows off their vocals in the first half when detailing their growing feelings for critically acclaimed actor Keanu Reeves in an unexpectedly meta and nuanced commentary of parasocial relationships. The lyrics cover how feelings grow for an actor when they appear in multiple movies of interest, metadiscussion of the fear of the referee hearing your reference in your work, and finishes with a gold star outro ripe for throwing things to.

The closing track is the chaotic 'm-m-m-METAL', which mixes Deftones-style riffs and bouncy electric beats to offer the listener some frenetic energy in the closing track. It contains a certified bar in the line "I’m talking shit and yet I’m frightened", but the outro is a little slow and blocky in comparison to the rest and falls down in comparison somewhat, bar the very last few bars with its ‘sprint’ motif. 'Keanu' could well have been a better closer, but this does not at all take away from the quality of the project overall, and provides yet another perspective on the Lynskey sound.

'here, this is for you' is a brilliant consolidation of sound for Lynskey, showing off the fact that B and Saul are clearly able to use different subgenres in a cohesive way, that is satisfying to the ear. Bouncy and full of personality, we can only hope to catch Lynskey on tour in the near future.

'here, this is for you' will be released on November 29th via Society Of Losers Records.

Words: Julia Brunton

Photo: El Atkinson