Make Cringe and Dancing Cool Again - Joey Valence & Brae New Album Release Urges
Words will never be able to express the bittersweet reality that you are growing up. When we are forced to make room for responsibilities. Become a source of reliability for all the tasks that come from an adult job. We start to leave behind the eccentric fire that comes from being young. The late nights with friends, reckless parties that end in irresponsible choices, and the fresh-faced hope for the future - it all ends, eventually, right?
‘Hyperyouth’ is this all up in your face album that resists those aging narratives of getting older. Joey Valence & Brae make it a mission to address the lost art of fun and dance in the transition of becoming an adult. Through the perfectly placed chants of live concerts and homage to dying club culture, the bass of each song reminds you how much our growing bodies crave dance. In this new club, Hip-Hop album release, we are learning not only the artist but learning to never lose sight of that youthful energy that we lose along the way.
I can not stress this enough that everyone needs to simply play the first song. Opening the setlist with their album title track, ‘Hyperyouth’, we hear the essence of their sound. This love child between The Beastie Boys and LMFAO, we are instantly transported into Brae’s intense rap, urging the listener to dance. The genius implementation of a skrillex sample brings back older Gen-Z’s dreams of always wanting to be in a crowd of sweaty bodies with their chorded earbuds.
You can’t help but make a stank face from the countless synths and bass-boosted sounds that come with ‘Bust Down (feat. TiaCorine).’ You start to hear the influences of rejecting individualism as Brae says, “F*ck your ego” and urges the ‘baddies’ in the club to simply lock it and pop it. This Pennsylvania duo have refined the movement that nobody is dancing anymore, but you will find yourself tapping a foot, swaying or jerking your head to the boom bap bounces of each song.
Perhaps my bias is showing after seeing them perform some of these songs live, but it’s one of those close-your-eyes and feel albums. Where do you see yourself in the moment? Are you happy with how you have grown? Are you happy not dancing? Do you need more fun in your life? Their seventh track, ‘WASSUP’ featuring JPEGMAFIA, helps alleviate those worries because you will start to move something you didn’t know you had! You feel the urge to just thrash your body against the beat. After being in their mosh during this song, listening to it at home for the first time, you must not fight the urge of the recklessness of this song.
Joey Valence & Brae want people to free themselves from the shackles of being scared of being cringe. With their consistent quips and innuendos, they are the funny duo in every classroom that will always remind you that life is not that serious. The riot and chaotic fun is best seen in their 13th track ‘Go Hard’ when the 80s synth at the beginning transports you to a mental moshpit of sounds. As JVB chants and asks, ‘ whatchu ya’ gon do?’ - you literally feel yourself ask, well, what am I going to do? Their positive affirmations of encouraging such musical liberty brings a smile to those as you hear New York influences begging you to move those feet.
With odes to New York City and Chicago hip-Hop, we start to understand that JVB want their fans to explore different sounds and artists. Between their charming cockiness, we can see the depth of their musical knowledge in two tracks. You start to see this in the 14th and 11th tracks, ‘Disco Tomorrow,’ and ‘THE PARTY SONG’ with the electronic and skull-crushing techno beats. The heavy spleen of EDM makes this Fast and Furious track evermore so enticing to replay. In the synthed, and EDM-heavy track, I can’t help but be reminded of the nights I spent in nightclubs before cringe was wrong. How many people left the club with sloppy smiles and new memories.
Especially with their collab song with Rebecca Black, ‘SEE U DANCE’ - you can’t stop but follow along with the sensual and hyper-pop melodies and remember the feeling of dancing with your girls. The Y2K sound reverts into the 3 A.M. grind of one body against another, and as Rebecca softly sings about the attraction between two people on the dance floor, your heart starts to ache for it. The connection the entire album wants to remind you of. The nostalgic heart of wanting to have fun with the people around you, whether that be a soft grind or a dance battle.
The boom bap Hip-Hop fans, the skrillex fans, and the club goers - ‘Hyperyouth’, this one is for you. So, as JVB asks, will you get up and shake something?
