While Anticon, along with help from the industry, really wanted us to gravitate to Scotland's Young Fathers, the hype did not escalate until SxSW 2013. Suddenly, anyone who saw a Young Fathers set was a convert. Truthfully, we should have been down since Tape One, but now anticipation is at an all-time high for the Dead LP in 2014.
On the lead single “Low”, Young Fathers bring a maximum poptimist mentality that combines rap with reggae spiritual. It's a single with the potential to alter the fabric of modern pop, giving the impression Young Fathers were saving their big ideas for the proper debut. The second single “War” sounds as though it's setting the stage for an explosive moment and it may take waiting for the full record to fully understand the track's gravity. A choir declares “this is war” to the twinkling sound of a crib's mobile, while the final seconds introduce a repetitive synth line poised to burst the track wide open, but it all tapers off into handclaps. It's clearly headed somewhere epic, but until we're graced with “Get Up”, the following track, we only know that lines were drawn and armies are in position.
Young Fathers' Dead LP is out February 4 on Anticon.