You Me At Six have steadily grown in popularity since the release of debut album Take Off Your Colours and then further more with its follow up, 2010’s Hold Me Down, as well as the in-between albums single, “Rescue Me”, featuring uh…Chiddy Bang (whoever that is?!).
There were rumours that Sinners Never Sleep was to be a heavier affair than the previous two record that had seen You Me At Six lumped in some pop-punk, emo category, unfairly the band had said. Sinners Never Sleep isn’t heavier though, in fact, it is probably softer and almost more ballad(y) than previous effort Hold Me Down. Lead single “Loverboy” is You Me At Six by numbers, with hints of a rock attitude in the guitar but with singer Josh Franceschi predictably drawing his female fans to sing-a-long with the type of anthemic chorus that the band have tried and tested so often that they have it down to a tea now. “This Is The First Thing” and “Crash” are your stereotypical slow dredges of American soft rock, we’ve heard this all before, boy is emotionally hurt, so boy writes song about it and musically it is so middle ground, so Wind-up Records meets well, Simple Plan, how very unimaginative and contrived.
There are sparks when you think “Yes, this is it, they’ve got it”. There is a cracking guitar riff on “Time Is Money” that recalls the southern blues sound of perhaps Every Time I Die, but even that is spoilt by a From Autumn To Ashes (or A Day To Remember if you are looking for a more recent reference) breakdown that shows clearly that at this point in their careers, You Me At Six don’t know who they want to be.
To put it simply, if you liked the first two albums, you will probably love this. If you expect more from music, avoid because this is nothing new.
[Rating: 2]
