Young Hunting Creates an Anthem For the Idle With “Crimes” (premiere)

“Crimes” is the latest offering from Los Angeles-based dream pop outfit Young Hunting. With primary songwriters Hari Rex and Ilya Mxx having first bonded over a shared love of Nick Cave, Jason Molina and Can, among others, the tune is an appropriate blend of the world-weary and the resolute. Filled with vocal harmonies that would not have been out of place on radio during the 1970s with musical settings that recall the warmth and glory of LPs by all those listed above, “Crimes” is quietly and strangely anthemic (if you can imagine T.S. Eliot’s famed antihero J. Alfred Prufrock crafting an anthem), a balm for the heartbroken and soul-searching.

Mxx says, “It’s about the comfort/horror of numbness and idleness. I had the chorus years ago and first played it for Hari on a camping trip while sitting up on a rock. It sounded like Skip Spence doing ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ in my mind at the time. We stripped our mix down to just one boggy synth in the intro. It’s kind of a fake-out style-wise, but it’s also probably the most honest sound on there.”

“Crimes” comes from Young Hunting‘s forthcoming LP, True Believers, out February 15 via Gold Robot Records. The album may be pre-ordered now.