Compassion

AlbumMar 18 / 20168 songs, 35m 10s
Synthpop Alternative Dance
Popular

Lush and entrancing, *Compassion* is an expertly crafted blend of synth-pop melodicism and ethereal drift. Bold opener “Stardom” reflects Lust for Youth’s swiftly growing compositional skills as Hannes Norrvide’s voice, as haunted as it is yearning, skates across gauzy arpeggios and spare, lustrous guitar. On “Better Looking Brother,” the trio add rippling percussion, flirting with a deliciously cool brand of dance-floor euphoria. And on the record’s stunning finale, the near-ambient “In Return,” they submerge themselves in a hazy cloud of sumptuously layered atmospherics.

Compassion restates beauty for a time of crisis and clickbait. Judgement, design, form, and opinion: to what end will we refine our world if we can't also make an anthem of our lives? This is the tender conspiracy: I'm on twitter; I have an anthem. Do we have an anthem? We have lust. Let's meet IRL. Compassion's first single, "Better Looking Brother" was streamed over 50k times in its first month, capping off a highly successful 2015 of worldwide tours and critical social media updates. Lust For Youth are affectionately vicious, and vulnerably sharp. They are the anticipation of the comedown as you come up on the best you've ever been offered from a bathroom stall. This is the spectrum: a low you know, and a dizzy new height.

6.2 / 10

Lust For Youth have spent the last six years refining lo-fi darkwave into club-ready synth-pop. Compassion is the end product of that evolution, a once rough stone polished into a lustrous crystal.

7 / 10

Danish synth-pop trio Lust for Youth toe-tap the bridge between melancholia and euphoria on their new album Compassion

It’s a purposeful record that shows a trio holding on to the makings of something quite special.

It's not an overstatement to say that International was a huge step forward for Lust for Youth: As Hannes Norrvide's solo project became a trio, his introspection moved from underneath headphones onto the dancefloor.

Compassion is at times the triumphant realisation of the shadowy synthpop Hannes Norrvide has been working towards since his lo-fi bedroom recordings.

5 / 10

On Compassion, Lust for Youth sound a lot like Depeche Mode. Between the slightly flat voice of lead singer Hannes Norrvide and the synth so...

7 / 10

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Album Reviews: Lust For Youth - Compassion