Genre/Influences: Dreamy dark-wave, shoegaze.

Content: The Underground Youth is a British band, which has been already into music for a couple of years, releasing several albums. The band seems to like releasing vinyls and I have to admit this good-old ‘retro’ style is totally appropriated for their music.

“Haunted” evokes some good-old souvenirs and I here especially refer to the kind of shoegaze input. But there’s much more to find and explore. The sound rather appears to be a fusion between different influences, which move from shoegaze to dream-pop and even a touch of neo-folk music. The main strength is the dark and sometimes disturbing mood emerging from the work. There’s a kind of visual appeal, which reminds me of the particular atmosphere themes felt in the successful movie of Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides”.

“Haunted” is an invitation to join a dreamy world of sadness, which is characterized by an impressive, moody guitar playing. A few cuts are a little bit harder, which is mainly due to the kind of resonating drones. Just pay attention to “Slave” and you’ll quickly get into the essence of this opus. I also recommend “The Girl Behind” for the once more outstanding guitar parts, but also for the mix of male and female vocals. The album finally comes to an end with the beautiful “Returning To Shadow”. My only regret is that this album only features 9 songs, but they’re definitely worthy of examination.

Conclusion: “Haunted” is a dark and moody album leading the listener into a kind of delicious malaise. It clearly is not the kind of music you should listen to during depressive moments.

Best songs: “The Girl Behind”, “Dreaming With Maya Deren”, “Slave”, “Returning To Shadow”.

Rate: (Elise Din:8)Elise Din.

Band: www.facebook.com/TheUndergroundYouth

Label: http://fuzzclub.com / www.facebook.com/FuzzClubRecords