Mourn: "Silver Gold"

We’re told time and time again—rock and roll is no longer the sound of youth culture. In a backwards way, Spanish punk band Mourn prove this; none of their members are older than 18, and if they were a pop or hip-hop group, somehow this would be a talking point of far less interest. As far as guitar music goes, teens are typically either lauded as prodigies or punks, gawked at or given backhanded compliments for powering through a lack of technical skills. “Silver Gold”, the volcanic closer on Mourn’s upcoming Captured Tracks debut, is undeniably youthful. They’re not hiding their influences; these are musicians still in the discovery phase, channeling PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney, Sunny Day Real Estate and other 90s titans who are life-altering upon first listening.

But this isn’t We Are the Best! on wax. More importantly, the Catalonian quartet play with an unshakable conviction and a lack of self-consciousness, recording straight-to-tape, letting the harmonies bleed together and drums play at maxed-out levels. What Jazz Rodriguez and Carla Perez Vas are singing about is unclear, even in their rudimentary English (“deliver me from heaven” is the one lyric that peeks through the murk), but “Silver Gold” comes across as a love song about punk rock and having a long life in it ahead of you.

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