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Young for Eternity

by The Subways

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The debut album from The Subways proves that for a man approaching his seventies, Glastonbury’s (UK music festival) Michael Eavis has excellent taste. Eavis plucked The Subways’ demo from a pile of demos and pushed this young trio--frontman Billy Lunn, his girlfriend, bassist Mary-Charlotte Cooper, and his brother, drummer Josh Morgan--onto the 2004 festival stage.

A long, hot summer on, Young For Eternity fulfils all their early potential: "I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say" and "Oh Yeah" barrel along with the raw, adrenalised energy of Nirvana or The White Stripes--full-bodied, powerful anthems that lose none of their live passion in the studio setting. Lunn’s oft-stated admiration for Oasis surfaces on "Mary", a sort of amped-up "She’s Electric" that’s actually, rather sweetly, a love song from singer to bassist. Ms Cooper, too, however, has a pretty great voice: more grit-edged rock bitch than cooing indie-waif, it invests the likes of "Oh Yeah" and "City Pavement" with a smouldering--nay, flat-out roaring--chemistry that’s all the more engaging because it’s actually 100% genuine. --Louis Pattison