The Wantage based Indie survivors are back with a nuanced and slightly more experimental effort.

Back in the early noughties you couldn’t have had an interest in the local Oxford indie scene and not come across the Young Knives. They were either running their own headline shows, or providing support for a range of decent acts. Their first release, ‘The Young Knives Are Dead’ came out on Oxford’s brilliant local indie label ‘Shifty Disco.’ Supporting Hot Hot Heat at The Oxford Zodiac was a particularly memorable appearance for me. They flirted with big league success, appearing on Later With Jools Holland and getting nominated for The Mercury Music Prize in 2007 for the excellent ‘Voices of Animals & Men’. They were always a huge amount of fun and gave very high energy performances. They have resurfaced every now and again with a new album, though the trio dropped down to the core element of brothers Henry Dartnall and Thomas Bonsu-Dartnall (better known on stage as The House of Lords).

‘Landfill’ picks up where ‘Barbarians’ left off, experimenting with their sound around the edges, no longer feeling the need to be a strictly linear guitar band. Being free of a regular drummer has allowed them to mix things up with drum machines and drum loops where they want them alongside regular drums when the need is there.

‘A memory of Venom’ flits across with strings and a looping piano showing the level of creative stretch they have now achieved and is gloriously, chaotically epic. ‘Ugly House’ instantly feels more like Young Knives of old though then morphs and changes during its six-and-a-half-minute runtime into what feels like a self-help audiotape. There is less emphasis on being funny than there was in their early days, though some of the wry observations will still draw a smile.

‘Cause and Effect’ treads a fine line between sounding ominous and sounding bonkers. It could be a Gorillas offcut where Damon Albarn decided to sing the chorus on helium. ‘Dissolution’ is far more funky in an angular noughties kind of way. ‘Love The Knives’ initially leans into the folk horror vibe that has permeated a number of previous tracks, most notably on the Wicker Man inspired video for ‘The Decision,’ then switches into more of a low tempo stomp before disappearing into two minutes of harsher industrial noise.

The title of the album is a reference to a rather hideous piece of journalism from Vice entitled ‘The Top 50 Greatest Landfill Indie Songs of All Time’ from 2020. The gist is that the era between the Strokes and White Stripes led Garage Rock revival/Indie Rock Revival/Post-Punk Revival/New Rock Revolution (delete as appropriate) and the 2010’s more pop-centric guitar music was a wasteland of generic indie bands, hence the term ‘landfill indie.’ Frankly, it is sloppy and highly offensive to a number of very good bands, or those that enjoyed a hit or two before disappearing without trace. Young Knives are in at 34 with ‘She’s Attracted To.’ I cannot quite decide if they hold lengthy grudges or just decided to run with it and wear it as a badge of honour. Either way, they have never been ‘landfill’ and are most certainly not on this album.

Overall, this a very strong collection of tracks from a pair of polished and experienced songwriters. Whilst it probably won’t alter their musical trajectory, forever likely to be appreciated warmly in some quarters and most likely ignored in others. It certainly isn’t landfill though.