Young Guns
Bones
Play It Again Sam

Bones is a crucial record for High Wycombe boys Young Guns. They’ve already proved they’ve got the talent, the songs and the appeal, now they just need that one crack at the mainstream and they will be right up there bothering the coat tails of Lostprophets as one of the UK’s biggest rock bands. So, is the end result going to get them there?

Well, quite possibly, it just depends on what your expectations are as you head into listening to it? Initial press reports seem to be airing on the side of “it’s not the same as All Our Kings Are Dead”! Which, if you want to look at it that way, is correct. However, if you look it from the point of view that Young Guns needed to make a massive rock record much in the same way Lostprophets made Start Something and Liberation Transmission, then you’ll find that Bones is an absolute top notch affair. Okay, it may start off fairly mid-paced but when Dearly Departed kicks in and the band step it up a gear, it quickly becomes apparent that the High Wycombe chaps are going for it all guns blazing. Writing huge sounding songs has clearly become the norm for these boys as the title track proves while Towers (On My Way) scuttles along with big, instantly shoutable choruses. You see, while this may not be as instantly radio-friendly as some of the earlier Lostprophets material, the blueprint is fairly similar – memorable, loud, massive sounding rock that will fill arenas and radio playlists. Further down the album though, Young Guns have proved that, not only are they learning the art of writing unit-shifting rock, in the case of the Gaslight Anthem-esque Brothers In Arms, Young Guns have also perfected the art of writing songs that will stand the test of time.

So, there we have it, Young Guns needed to come out firing on this record and, boy have they done that. They could have rested on their laurels and churned out another All Our Kings Are Dead but, to their credit, they haven’t. They’ve come back bigger and louder and, as clichéd as it sounds, these young guns have clearly grown up into something quite impressive.

Release Date : 06 February 2012

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Review by Graham Finney