For their new record, The Night Is Ours, Australian stars Youth Group decided to forgo the more traditional approach employed for their previous records. Over the period of a couple of months in late 2007, the band holed up in a near-derelict 1920s mess hall on Sydney’s harbor. They decided against traditional studio procedures and turned the vacated building into a studio, bringing in all of their own gear to create an inimitable recording environment which allowed them to work at their own pace.

As bassist Patrick Matthews explains, “We also deliberately waited until we were in our studio and worked them up one at a time till we had them finished and recorded, so that the moment of creation was also the moment of recording. With the last record we found that some of the early demos had a spark that couldn’t be recreated in the final studio.”

This space allows for a record, that, albeit full of polished songs that stay stuck in your head for days, captures a kind of emotional intimacy that can often be lost in post-production. This is music built around strong hooks and insightful verses, bringing to mind bands like the Replacements, the Smiths, and fellow Aussies the Church and the Triffids, as well as contemporaries like Death Cab For Cutie, the Shins, Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Ra Ra Riot. It’s melody-driven rock that puts frontman Toby Martin’s clear, expressive voice at the forefront of the songs without taking away from the band’s masterful instrumental work.