Andrew Young - Tree House

Andrew Young 

Treehouse
self-released; 2013

3.4 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Andrew Young is a young man who is making easily digestible mainstream music that could easily sound right at home next to bands like A Rocket to the Moon, and Colbie Calliat. The songs on Young’s latest effort Tree House while absolutely predictable and shamelessly abandoning any kind of indie cred burst with the exuberance that only a young man who is completely happy with his surroundings could produce. These songs often made me feel like I was living in a Gap commercial and are the type of songs I might listen to as a guilty pleasure. The lyrics are straightforward and the melodies are recognizable. However, at the right time and place you may find yourself popping this in to get your fix in. 

One thing that usually suffers with independent musicians is recording quality but not in this case. The quality is exceptional as the guitars sound crisp, drums sound full and his voice sounds perfect in the mix. The EP has six songs that are all around three minutes long and have a basic cookie cutter framework that works for what he is trying to accomplish. Young is at his best when he is unapologetically optimistic with his songwriting. The second song on the album “Good Weather Song” is unforgiving with its catchy riffs and vocals lines that will make even the most glum of hipsters feel the unbridled joy of young love. I’m must be getting older, the hell with it, I’ll even embrace Justin Bieber if he writes a song that hits me in the right way. The other highlight on the album was “True Blue” which while containing cliché lyrics had a very catchy melody and was almost as addictive as “Good Weather Song” but it had a tinge of melancholy.

My advice to Young is to exploit his ability to write songs that burst with joy that have absolutely no trace of sadness in them because these are songs that feel the most original. Following in the steps of bands like The Boy Least Likely To that embrace creating such heightened sense of joy that is oh so rare in real life it may be a good thing for Young to do in order to differentiate himself amongst the singer/songwriters who write melancholy heart wrenched tunes that make most of us with a sense of good music want to cringe.

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