The album bounds to a start with a drum cascade firmly out of the Queens of the Stone Age bible before making a firm turn with an old-school guitar riff that devolves into sparse verses and fleshed-out choruses. Take My Hand follows a similar path, if lighter and prettier, that veers into snotty series of nah nah nahs in a fun twist.
Paradise PL. is the most traditional take found here, a swampy, bar-friendly jam with perfectly placed axe strikes. Kings & Queens steals the spotlight midway through the album, a polished effort that finds its soul in a grunge-adjacent stairstep that eventually gets ripped up into a thunderous indie bridge.
The rest trade off between satisfactory rockers (What Have I Done) and sleepy ballads (Run, Run, Run) before coming to a close.
There are moments and choices that sway toward paint-by-number territory, reading more as required than inspired; but when the duo colors outside the lines, as it does in the cocky Lead Along, sharp-edged Shelter and aforementioned Kings & Queens, the result sits right in line with the bands The Younglings are openly aspiring to. Joshua Boydston