Year Future

First World Fever

[4/5] What Year Future frontman Sonny Kay lacks in vocal prowess–his high-pitched, tonally kamikaze yell is an acquired taste–he makes up for in persistence; and while internal tension may have killed Kay’s seminal proto-screamo bands Angel Hair and the VSS, it seems to be the life’s blood of his current quartet. Neither lineup changes nor the law of diminishing returns has killed Year Future (granted, it helps when your vocalist runs your label), and with First World Fever, their first full-length release since forming in 2003, the mean-eyed, angular Los Angeles quartet are positively on fire. Comprising 11 songs (including two tracks from 2004’s The Hidden Hand EP), Fever is art rock without the pretension, punk without the historical slavishness and political without the browbeating. And while Kay may be their voice (and Moving Units’ Chris Hathwell their new drummer), the group’s secret weapon is guitarist Rockey Crane, who shreds like he’s been deconstructing the Birthday Party and Dead Kennedys between fever dreams and diet pills. In a word? Frightening.
(GSL) Aaron Burgess