One Of Us

‘One of Us’ is the second album by the electronic rock band, Young Love, fronted solely by Dan Keyes. It makes a surprising growth from the first album, ‘Too Young To Fight It,’ which he calls a messy collection of things he recorded while still touring with his punk band, Recover. He left that band in 2005 to start Young Love. And though it is different, it’s more organized, and still has the sound fans love.

Keyes got to record the album for awhile in California, taking his time to write music and lyrics that weren’t a jumbled mess like the first album. In the CD, the lyrics talk about everything from love to abandonment to just having a good time.

The first songs fans heard off the new album were ‘Unafraid’ and ‘Get Me Up,’ which Keyes released onto the band’s MySpace page months before the record was finished. The songs both have strong electronic beats, but also have solid rock influences and meaningful lyrics.

The CD starts out with the song ‘Unafraid,’ which reminds us of the songs off of ‘Too Young To Fight It.’ Though each song is different from the next, each tells a story. There are no fillers, only funky songs that you could play at a party, sing in the shower, or just dance in your room to.

My favorites on the album are ‘The Picture,’ which was a song he played during his set at Bamboozle that has catchy lyrics, ‘Down on Me,’ which shows a more romantic side of Keyes, ‘Don’t Fight It,’ which also has catchy lyrics and a killer beat, and ‘Love for Sale,’ which is obviously about prostitution, but yet it’s a song you totally want to sing along to.

So go give this album a listen. In the words of Dan Keyes, it’s "so f***ing epic."