Album Review: Young Fathers Give Cocoa Sugar To Heal The World

Young Fathers’ Cocoa Sugar is strange and sexy. It is the psychedelic in funkadelic, by sounding like a sultry nightmare playing in one of the city’s hottest nightclubs. Yet, is that not the ultimately feel of avant-pop.

The worlds of pop and art have collided quite a bit, especially recently or, maybe, more noticeably. Nothing like strained, political times to stir our alertness to creative expression. “Lord”, “Holy Ghost”, “Wire”, and “In My View” feel cinematic; as if you can go through a Western film, a Sci-Fi Fantasy, a Hip Hop dance-pic, and dark, romance movie within one setting. To press next, is to transform your space into a new, sonic world, which, again, is the essence of avant-pop.

By creating beats that range in aesthetic, Young Fathers have made an album that hits every emotional chord. From the bops of “Border Girl” to the marching baselines of “Picking You”, you dance to their sonic worlds as if they were tiny floating orbs around you, and to touch one is to enact a scene. Yet, for Young Fathers, their music is only so rich in sound because their messages are wealthier. Tracks like, “Turn”, “Wow”, and “Toy” are laced with messages of connectivity and compassion amongst chaos.

Young Fathers’ are futuristic in sound because they are futuristic in thought. They sound “strange” because they live for a world where the old ways of thinking, such as “us vs them”. become abolished, and humanity is fully freed to be humane. It is an intriguing thought considering that most of us believe systems and structures confine humanity’s animal nature, but to Young Fathers; they stir it. Thus, you listen as lead singer Alloysious Massaquoi’s voice becomes the sonic equivalent of lavish grapes being dripped and juiced into royal wine. The irony is he is transforming illusions of royalty into ideas for a wealthier reality for all. For More Information On Young Fathers And To Buy Cocoa Sugar on March 9 Click Here.